FOR all the fight that remains in Leeds, and there certainly is some, the team now lacks conviction. Six successive Premiership defeats tell their own truth and the truth of this one was that Aston Villa won comfortably.

Juan Pablo Angel was the most influential player on the pitch. The Colombian international’s power and pace, his heading ability and innovative flicks, soon had the Premiership’s most porous defence on the back foot.

He combined well with his strike partner, Darius Vassell, while Gareth Barry and Nolberto Solano hurt Leeds consistently from the flanks. Leeds could rightly question the penalty won by Vassell for the challenge by Didier Domi that put them behind, but any notion that the outcome was determined by Uriah Rennie’s dubious decision lacks validity.

“If we keep playing like we did then I still believe we can scrape out of trouble,” said Eddie Gray, the Leeds manager. “But it’s getting to the stage where it’s critical that we win matches, especially Tuesday night’s game against Wolves.”

Mark Viduka struck the bar in the second half with a half-volley from 25 yards and was Leeds’s most threatening player, but if they are to arrest their wretched run they will need to galvanise more support for Viduka and Alan Smith. Villa’s higher energy and quality of passing gave them control of midfield, where David Batty was missing for Leeds, dropped by Gray after pulling out of the match against Middlesbrough, perhaps for good.

For all Villa’s possession it seemed that Leeds would manage to hold Villa at bay until half-time, but as injury time began Barry released Vassell, whose pace proved too much for Matteo. Domi was forced to come across and make a challenge. At the precise moment he did, Vassell seemed to have lost control of the ball with a heavy touch but the referee, a little behind play, pointed without hesitation to the spot. Angel’s conversion into the bottom left corner was precise, however fortuitous the award of the kick had been.

“From where I was standing it was dubious,” said David O’Leary, the Villa manager.

Dion Dublin came off with a groin injury early in the second half and his replacement, Ronnie Johnsen, effectively sealed the result, his glancing header off Solano’s free kick finding the far corner. Viduka came closest to mounting a fightback with that half-volley and then with a near-post header from a corner by Seth Johnson with which he should have hit the target. Thomas Sorensen also produced a tremendous late save from substitute Aaron Lennon’s deflected shot.

“I can’t believe where they are and I’d be very sorry if they go down,” said O’Leary, Leeds’s former manager. “The players they have and the attitude they showed at times today I just can’t understand it.”

Aston Villa: Sorensen, De La Cruz, Mellberg, Dublin (Johnsen 49), Samuel, Solano, Hendrie (Ridgewell 85), Hitzlsperger, Barry, Vassell (Crouch 85), Angel

Leeds: Robinson, Kelly, Caldwell, Matteo, Domi, Pennant (Lennon 63), Bakke (Richardson 86), Johnson, Milner, Viduka, Smith

Scorers: Aston Villa: Angel 45 pen, Johnsen 59

Referee: U Rennie

Attendance: 39,171

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