Aston Villa Reserves 0, Sunderland Reserves 1

John Oster's goal ten minutes from time gave the Black Cats a deserved victory over their young Villa counterparts last night.

In a match that the Wearsiders dominated, it appeared that the game would end up goalless until the Welsh international capitalised on hesitancy in the home side's defence to fire home a neat winner.

There was an encouraging return for Republic of Ireland international Kevin Kilbane, who appeared to come through the match without a recurrence of his ankle injury. And that has put him line for a return to the starting line-up for Sunday's Stadium of Light clash against Chelsea.

The majority of the play was confined to Villa's half, with the home side's injury crisis forcing John Gregory to field youngsters who had played in the FA Youth Cup just 48 hours earlier.

They put up a sterling fight and their endeavour appeared to have brought them a much-needed point to help to bolster their lowly position in the table, but Oster's smart piece of thinking ruined their evening.

ASTON VILLA: Myhill, Bewers, Jackman, Edwards, Hylton, Melaugh, Smith, Cooke, Hynes, Scullion, McGrath. Subs: Moore, Henderson, Ridgewell, Husband, O'Connor.

SUNDERLAND: Macho, Harrison, McCartney, Clark, Byrne, Medina, Bellion, Butler, Kyle, Oster, Kilbane. Subs: Ingham, Reddy, Dickman, Marchant, James. * England coach Sven-G&ouml;ran Eriksson was yesterday presented with the UK Coach of the Year award.

Eriksson was one of two coaches selected for the award after guiding England through to the World Cup finals.

He received his award alongside Alex Stanton, coach to world cross country and half marathon champion Paula Radcliffe.