Getting stuck in the White Rose Centre car park for nearly an hour before the game, seeing Uriah Rennie was refereeing the game, then United kicking towards the Revie stand in the first half, I just knew it was going to be one of those games...and sure enough, it was!

The problem this season is we've become a little spoilt and a little too used to seeing the lads get out of jail, when sometimes our overall play perhaps didn't merit it. So we went into this game on a string of consecutive home victories, going all the way back to mid September. In fact, this would have been our thirteenth victory in a row, since the Liverpool defeat back in mid August. Not a be record!

Of course, the problem today was that we had virtually all of our regular midfield missing, through either injury or suspension (Batty, Bowyer and McPhail) along with King Lucas, suspended as a result of that somewhat dubious bit of refereeing at Filbert Street.

Anyway, with Jones, Haaland and Duberry drafted into the team, we started brightly enough and edged the first quarter of an hour. Within the first couple of minutes, Alfie set up Smith who blasted over the crossbar from 8 yards out. Then, on 10 minutes, Kewell and Bridges combined well, with the latter just failing to get his foot to the former's well paced ball.

However, then Villa started to threaten - with Carbone a constant thorn in our sides. The former Sheffield Wednesday man appeared to handle the ball, in the thirteenth minute, but the referee played on. Carbone made good progress down the right before forcing a good save from Martyn.

It was Carbone again who forced the corner from which Villa took the lead, on 19 minutes. Merson took the corner, forcing an untidy scramble in the United area. Somehow, Southgate managed to get the end of his boot to the ball to give the visitors a somewhat fortuitous lead.

However, for the remainder of the half, they were certainly the dominant force, without exactly playing out of their skins. On the other hand, we were a pale shadow of our usual selves, unable to put together any kind of passing movement and looking fragile at the back, without the suspended Radebe.

Whatever O'Leary said at half time certainly appeared top do the trick, as within a minute of the restart, we were on level terms. What's more, the goal must be a contender for Goal of the Month, if not the season. Kewell was given possession just inside the Villa half. He took a couple of touches to bring the ball down, then with his third he unleashed an unstoppable left foot drive into the corner of the Villa goal. It must have been from all of 30 yards, yet such was the force of the shot that James, in the Villa goal, remained rooted to the spot.

Usually, that would have spurred us on to greater things. Indeed, when Harry turned provider for Smith, a couple of minutes later, it looked like the whole pattern of the game was to change. Yet, Alan's abortive attempt to slot the ball past the advancing keeper would turn out to be one of the few opportunities we would make during the game's remainder.

After another 15 minutes of being on top, the pattern of the first half repeated itself, as we allowed the visitors back into the game. On the hour mark, Wright set up Merson, who could one prod the ball wide of Martyn's post. However, two minutes later we were behind again. A dubious free kick, one of many dubious decisions by Rennie throughout the game, cost us dear. Merson was again the provider, as he lobbed the ball into the area, for Southgate to beat Martyn with a well placed header. Unfortunately for us, though, there was a distinct lack of marking going on at the time.

From then on, it always looked unlikely that we would get back on level terms. Indeed, Villa continued to look the more composed team, as our pattern of play disintegrated further.

So we slipped to our first home defeat for almost five months. Oh well, it had to happen some time, I suppose, but the manner of defeat was disappointing. With various observers looking to doubt our Championship credentials during the week (Merson being one of them!) it would have been nice to prove them wrong this afternoon. Unfortunately, though, we simply verified their views. On this showing, we don't look to have the strength in depth to do without our top players - and one or two of their replacements (Duberry in particular) looked worryingly short of form.

Two defeats in a row now put real pressure on us for next week's FA Cup tie at Maine Road and for the forthcoming visits to Sunderland and Liverpool. The next month could now well prove to be the defining moment of our season.

United Star Man: Harry Kewell