Liverpool continue to cling to the coat-tails of the Premiership's leading pack after halting an Aston Villa renaissance that had brought three consecutive League wins, last night.

Leading by a disputed penalty from Robbie Fowler, they produced a fine finishing flourish. Steve McManaman, intercepting in his own half, strode forward and shrugged off two challenges before beating Mark Bosnich with a searing drive. Then Karl-Heinz Riedle coolly controlled a sharp pass from Michael Owen to score in the last minute.

Merseyside faces fell when the full legacy of Liverpool's weekend trip to Southampton was revealed shortly before kick-off. It was bad news for an audience which, because of stadium renovation, did not boast a single Villa supporter outside the directors' box.

The rumours were correct. Liverpool had been ravaged by injury. Paul Ince, Mark Wright, Dominic Matteo and Jason McAteer were all missing and Riedle's recurring back problem restricted him to the substitutes' bench. Yet a first start of the season for Fowler was a bonus whatever the circumstances.

Stan Collymore's every touch was greeted with boos, as was only to be expected after his ungracious and gratuitous comments about players he was happy to class as team-mates until his departure at the end of last season.

The Villa striker seemed unconcerned by all the fuss but he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve only when there is something more attractive than loyalty at stake.

With Liverpool preferring an orthodox four-man defence and Villa typically unable to suppress their natural instinct for relentless attack, the evening's impressively high tempo faltered only when the ball lay in the arms of the goalkeepers David James and Mark Bosnich.

The more thoughtful football came from Villa but with Collymore and Dwight Yorke too often found to be patrolling the same patch the studious work of Fernando Nelson and Alan Wright down the two flanks was in vain.

Villa's enterprising play was nearly rewarded as early as the fifth minute when they would certainly have scored but for James's athleticism, perhaps his greatest strength. Diving smartly to his left, he reached Collymore's powerful low drive but could not hold it. Yorke moved in for the kill, aware that just one touch, however faint, would score but James managed to recover and claim possession.

Thereafter Liverpool played with great energy if not always intelligence, creating openings but ominously few chances. By over-elaborating, using four passes when three would have done, they reduced their own effectiveness to the extent that Villa had only to wait patiently before regaining possession.

So much endeavour for so little entertainment and then, mercifully, 11 minutes into the second half, came the breakthrough. Michael Owen chased Danny Murphy's nicely weighted pass into the penalty area and as the youngster drew back his boot he fell under Gareth Southgate's challenge. Martin Bodenham saw fit to favour forward rather than defender but it did look a rather harsh decision.

Fowler drilled home a left-footed penalty kick but the Villa players continued to protest Southgate's innocence as they trudged back to the halfway line.

McManaman's moment of magic in the 79th minute was doubly welcome, and Riedle's last-minute goal, smartly taken, removed all controversy from the result.