In the ninety second minute, defensive midfielder Matt Plano fired a thunderbolt from thirty yards which the Dalton keeper did well to turn over. From the resultant corner, John Salisbury scored a rare headed goal, having found himself unmarked six yards out. Apart from that, Villa again failed to trouble the opposition in any meaningful sense of the word, and although the makeshift defence, and Darren Davies in particular, played well, the abject lack of cutting edge up front left an exasperated Mark McDonnell wondering what else he can do to compensate for the missing quality, with a run of important matches coming thick and fast.

For their part, Dalton scored two headed goals, the first well taken by Callison from a corner, after Davies turned a shot over the top, and the second a bit on the soft side, substitute Johnson heading through Baxter’s legs with his first touch when given acres of space.

Few positives for McDonnell to cogitate upon on the long journey back, but key midfielder Elliott Dunn did manage to play through the pain for forty five minutes, though that served only to reinforce how much he is missed. Stuart Bingham managed the full ninety, but Alf Gutteridge joined the growing ranks of the walking wounded.

A short report, because frankly there was nothing worth reporting. Scrambling for their Prem survival, Dalton were suitably motivated and were delighted with the three points, but a small pitch and a poor refereeing display meant a stop start game, more stop than start, which left much to be desired as a spectacle.

Villa Line-Up: Ross Baxter, Rick Wood (Jamie Pennington 77), Darren Davies, James O’Loughlin, Sam Bolton, Matt Plano, David Warburton, Stuart Bingham, Elliot Dunn (John Salisbury 45), Tom Whittaker, Ryan Lilley.