Leicester - 0 Aston Villa - 5 Ian Walker is unlikely to be punished by the English FA for restraining a pitch invader on Saturday but the referee Jeff Winter fears he may be in trouble for not sending off the Leicester City goalkeeper for violent conduct.

The intruder, who was wearing a replica Leicester City shirt, invaded the pitch and hurled abuse at Walker after he had conceded the third goal in a humiliating defeat.

Walker was so incensed he pushed the intruder to the ground and shoved him a further three times before Winter dragged him away.

The official later admitted to Marcus Bent he should have given Walker a red card. The stewards handed the intruder over to police when they apprehended him. He was then arrested for pitch encroachment and taken into custody.

Leicester Constabulary and Leicester City are reviewing the incident but neither party is expected to make any comment before lunchtime today.

The FA, however, hopes action is is taken against the supporter. "We will want to gather all the information about the incident before making any judgment," said FA spokesman Adrian Bevington. "But we condemn any action by any individual running on the pitch."

The incident went some way towards overshadowing Villa's best result of the season but it was unable to gloss over a supine display by the home side. Indeed, they could have done with some of Walker's aggression to prevent the visitors doing as they pleased in an 18-minute spell that saw them score five times.

Leicester had been guilty of a similar implosion in the corresponding fixture at Villa Park in August. That had prompted a Birmingham-based journalist to describe them as "the worst team to ever play in the Premiership". Manager Micky Adams is understood to have used that jibe in an attempt to motivate his team before kick-off. On the evidence of the subsequent hour-and-a-half, the Brummiehack was not far wrong.

Peter Crouch scored twice to register his first Villa goals of the season and reckons a loan spell with Norwich has rekindled his career: "I've got a lot to thank Norwich for," he said. "I picked up my confidence there, did reasonably well and it's given me a new lease of life."

Crouch's second ended the five-goal onslaught that had been started when Darius Vassell scored his first away goal for 22 months. Vassell followed up with a superbly-taken second and Dion Dublin also joined in the fun.