Uphill battle now for Tim Sherwood and Aston Villa

Tim Sherwood acknowledged his Aston Villa side face a tough fight to avoid relegation after slumping to their seventh-successive league defeat at Newcastle United on Saturday.

Papiss Cisse’s goal eight minutes before half time was enough for Newcastle to win 1-0 and leave Villa 19th in the table, with only 11 games of the season remaining.

Sherwood, who took over from Paul Lambert as Villa manager two weeks ago, warned his players they have to raise their game quickly if the club are not to be playing outside England’s top flight for the first time since 1988 next season.

“We have to take something from every game between now and the end of the season,” he said. “People talk about we have quality, what I saw was heart and desire but I need to see more quality and I think we are capable of it.”

The only consolation for Villa was that two of their relegation rivals also lost yesterday.

A second-half own goal from Kieran Trippier consigned 18th-placed Burnley, who are on 22 points along with Villa, to a 1-0 home loss at the hands of Swansea City.

Meanwhile, Hull City, who are four points clear of the bottom three in 15th, went down 1-0 at Stoke City thanks to substitute Peter Crouch’s 71st minute header.

West Bromwich Albion though moved eight points clear of Burnley and Villa as Saido Berahino’s goal after 71 seconds proved enough to defeat Southampton 1-0.

The result meant Southampton missed out on the chance to go back into the top four, at least for 24 hours, with Arsenal, who they could have leapfrogged with a win, playing Everton today.

Ronald Koeman, the Southampton manager, said: “The total performance of team in quality is a little bit low from the beginning of the season but we have to go and believe in the next win.”

Crystal Palace’s Glenn Murray had a mixed day as he scored twice but then was sent off for a second bookable offence as Palace triumphed 3-1 at West Ham United.

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