With Liverpool recovering from their road trip to Madrid for Thursday’s Europa League semi final tie against Atletico, Villa re-took that 6th place in the league with a slightly stuttered performance in Hull to keep the pressure on the teams around us as the end of the season looms.

Three points which are vitally important to this season of course, but it also mean that we became only the fifth team to amass 1,000 points since the Premiership was born back in 1992. Well done, that’s quite an achievement.

Gabby opened the scoring in the 13th minute after a very bright, energetic start from Villa. A failed clearance rebounded to Gabby in space in the box and while it looked like he may square it to John Carew, who was wide open in the centre of the box, Gabby chose the more difficult option and thumped it into the top of the net himself from a tight angle.

From there, Villa began to fall deeper and deeper, allowing Hull to get some traction in the game. Hull should have scored themselves after Friedel’s double save still hadn’t cleared the ball, but Kilbane fired his short straight at James Collins, the only Villa defender between himself and an equaliser.

In fact, Villa sat back so much that the possession swung from about 40/60 around the 25 minute mark to 52/48 in Hull’s favour by half time. Still, aside from the goal mouth scramble, Villa looked mostly comfortable and like there were several gears available if required.

The second half was disrupted for several minutes after a clash of heads between Richard Dunne and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink sent the Irishman off for treatment, probably stitches, and the Dutchman left possibly unconscious and receiving treatment from paramedics. He was stretchered off to a standing ovation, hopefully he’ll be OK, but it didn’t look good.

The game ebbed and flowed until John Carew broke through in the 75th minutes and found Milner in space, only for the midfielder to be carelessly brought down for a penalty. Milner took it himself and made no mistake from the spot.

And so it finished, 2-0. Mostly comfortable, but could have easily been uncomfortable had one or two things gone Hull’s way. That’s just a part of football though, isn’t it? The result is all that counts and it’s another good result away from home.

As ever, more detailed analysis will follow. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this season is not over yet and we still have everything to play for. The little game on Sunday looks an even tastier prospect, no?