Aston Villa secured a top-10 finish on the final day as Stewart Downing scored to beat Liverpool.
Villa end season on a high with first home win over Reds in 13 years
Aston Villa secured a top-10 finish on the final day of the season as Stewart Downing scored to give them a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Villa Park.
In a game where most of the home crowd appeared focused on events elsewhere, the England winger netted to cap an excellent personal season with a well taken half-volley in the 33rd minute to seal Villa's first home win over Liverpool in 13 years.
The Villa fans appeared more concerned with the news surrounding bitter rivals Birmingham, who were fighting for their lives at Tottenham to preserve their Premier League status - ironically a game Liverpool were looking for Spurs to lose to possibly snatch a Europa League place.
It gave a fairly welcome distraction to proceedings in the actual match where, despite a much-improved second half, especially from the visitors, neither side appeared to exert themselves too much.
As expected, there was no sign of Villa manager Gerard Houllier against his former employers, so Gary McAllister took charge against the club he played for 10 years ago.
Dalglish brought midfielder Joe Cole into the side for his first Premier League start under the Scot since he took over in January.
Raul Meireles and Fabio Aurelio also made the team, leaving Glen Johnson, Maxi Rodriguez and Andy Carroll out of the side completely.
Villa were unchanged from their victory at Arsenal last week, as McAllister looked to get one over the club he became a hero at for his exertions in landing a cup treble under Houllier in 2001.
Slow start
The game began in a typical end-of-season fashion, with neither side willing to make any early inroads and instead preferring to build slowly.
It was not the blistering beginning from the Reds that blew away Fulham in the opening minutes in their 5-2 win two weeks ago, but the first card of the game went to midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker for a late tackle on Jay Spearing in the seventh minute.
Despite coming back on to the pitch briefly, Spearing could not continue and was replaced by Jonjo Shelvey, as Liverpool dominated possession in the early stages.
The first real chance of the game came Liverpool's way, with Meireles' sharp turn and shot from a good through ball by Aurelio being turned away for a corner.
From the resulting set-piece, Richard Dunne failed to clear with a header and Lucas managed a side-footed volley from close range, but Ashley Young was on hand to clear off the line.
Villa started to respond, with Stiliyan Petrov having two efforts on goal from outside the box that were blocked by the visiting defence.
The first half could not get going however, with a catalogue of players going down with various injuries - Jamie Carragher going off for treatment to a bloodied forehead and Fabian Delph struggling with an Achilles knock to be replaced by Marc Albrighton.
And the winger had an impact almost straightaway as the breakthrough came from Villa as the club's player of the year Downing peeled away to the back post and chested down an excellent cross from Albrighton before smashing in off the underside of the crossbar on the half-volley.
The second period began much the same as the first, with Liverpool taking control of possession but offering little going forward and seeing their attacks break down in the final third - Luis Suarez especially looking starved of service.
It was testament to the game's lack
