John Carew’s fourteenth goal of the season and a first clean sheet since February took Aston Villa back above Everton into fifth place last night, and also gave them a first win in ten league games and a first victory in seven games at Villa Park.

But while Villa were ending a disappointing sequence of results, Hull City continued a woeful run that may yet land them back in the Coca-Cola Championship after one season in the Barclays Premier League. Nor will the Yorkshire side be proud that two of their players showed fighting spirit too literally, Geovanni and Daniel Cousin squaring up to one another as the teams left the field at half-time.

Hull were far from disgraced, even if Boaz Myhill, the goalkeeper, had to pull off some memorable saves to keep his team in the game. But they have won only once in 18 league matches and their hopes may rest on Middlesbrough and Newcastle United, who are both three points below them, drawing when they play each other on Monday and then failing to win either of their remaining games.

“I said that this was a big weekend for us and next weekend is even bigger,” Phil Brown, the Hull manager, said. “They play on Monday night, and we’ve got to put pressure on them, and the way to do that is by getting something from the Stoke game \.”

However, Hull’s recent record is such that it is hard to consider any fixture as “winnable” and Villa could have been out of sight by half-time last night. Carew headed wide after a quick throw-in caught the Hull defence napping and Myhill had to punch James Milner’s swerving free kick over the crossbar.

Villa were able to break up Hull’s attacks at will, and on 33 minutes it brought them the opening goal. Stiliyan Petrov robbed George Boateng deep in his own half, allowing Gareth Barry to sweep the ball out to Ashley Young on the left. Carew timed his run perfectly to meet Young’s cross six yards out, poking the ball past Myhill as Hull appealed in vain for offside. The strike took Carew one goal ahead of Gabriel Agbonlahor as Villa’s top scorer. “The linesman got it spot-on,” Brown admitted. “It was poor defending from our point of view. The first goal was crucial to both sides.”

Hull’s attempt at a reply before the interval came from Geovanni with a speculative free kick from 35 yards out that went about the same distance wide. The Brazilian’s team-mates were unimpressed and Cousin made his feelings abundantly clear when Geovanni later hit an aimless cross-shot rather than attempt to pick out a team-mate.

Attention switched from the developing feud between the two when Myhill prevented Agbonlahor from doubling the lead, but the half-time whistle was the signal for the frustrations to boil over. Cousin had to be held back by Manucho, one of the substitutes, as the team left the field, and Geovanni did not reappear for the second half, although Brown played down the incident.

“I’ve no idea what they were talking about, or if they were arguing,” he said. “I was going to make the change anyway, and I won’t be asking Geovanni about it. But it shows they care.”

The change had little immediate effect and Myhill had to produce more fine saves from Barry and Milner, but his best stop came with 13 minutes left, deflecting Agbonlahor’s header from three yards over the bar. It kept Hull in with a chance, but although Zayatte and Manucho forced saves from Brad Friedel as the visiting side went for broke in the final minutes, the breakthrough would not come.

“We stayed with the game plan and could have, should have got something from it the longer it went on,” Brown said. “We were spirited but lacked a little bit of quality, and you have to show that extra commitment in the six-yard box.”

Myhill did his best to supply it, spending the closing seconds in the Villa penalty area, but heroics at both ends would have been too much to ask. “Their goalkeeper played a blinder,” Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, said. “We were very anxious towards the end because the Villa Park crowd have seen us concede late goals. A clean sheet is unusual for us and it’s a nice feeling.”

Aston Villa (4-4-2): B Friedel — L Young, C Davies, Z Knight, N Shorey — J Milner, S Petrov (sub: N Reo-Coker, 90), G Barry, A Young (sub: C Gardner, 90) — J Carew (sub: E Heskey, 87), G Agbonlahor. Substitutes not used: B Guzan, S Sidwell, N Delfouneso, C Clark.

Hull City (4-4-1-1): B Myhill — S Ricketts, M Turner, K Zayatte, A Dawson — R Garcia, I Ashbee (sub: D Marney, 10), G Boateng, K Kilbane (sub: Manucho, 73)— Geovanni (sub: N Barmby, 46) — D Cousin. Substitutes not used: M Duke, N Doyle, P Halmosi, N Featherstone. Booked: Zayatte, Boateng.

Referee: M Dean.