Dave Woodhall wonders if Alex McLeish has a cunning plan.

Sometimes I think Alex McLeish has some sort of a death wish. Some type of inner force that inspires him to make his job as hard as possible.

Villa were at home to Manchester City on Sunday. It was always going to be a difficult game even without the protest that was planned to take place before kick-off. This could have had a galvanising effect – many supporters wanted to show they had no truck with such action and would prefer to get behind the manager and team in their battle against the most expensively-assembled opposition Villa are ever likely to play. And Alex said thank you by picking Emile Heskey.

In a perverse way I feel sorry for Emile. It wasn’t his fault that he was given such a ludicrously lucrative contact. Neither is it his fault that although he hasn’t fulfilled the promise of his teenage years, when he made Wayne Rooney look a late developer, he’s still spent his career playing at the top level and being picked by managers at every opportunity, to widespread incredulity and scorn. It’s certainly not his fault that at a stage in his career when his best role might be as a last-gasp substitute, or possibly playing as an emergency central defender, he’s being asked to re-invent himself as a winger. But the fact is that any manager, least of all Alex McLeish, wanting to gain favour with a sceptical public is not going to pick Emile Heskey. Particularly when you have Charles N’Zogbia and Stephen Ireland on the bench.

Anyway, the inevitable happened. Villa had nothing to offer in midfield while City played within themselves, knowing that all they had to do was wait for the inevitable mistake. The equally inevitable source was a corner and the goal involved Carlos Cuellar, which was unfortunate as our stand-in left-back was easily Villa’s best player throughout. Doubly unfortunately, when Villa did finally press in the dying stages, Cuellar headed over when unmarked. That and a Darren Bent shot that was well saved by Joe Hart in injury time were the only times Villa looked like scoring and yet again showed that when we do go forward there can be a good team in there. Why Alex didn’t let them have free rein from the off is a mystery known only to him.

Coming up is a run of winnable games starting with Wigan away on Saturday. A few points on the board and we can start looking forward to the summer. Maybe that’s all part of Alex’s masterplan – get as low as possible without really being in trouble, then start playing as well as we can and go storming up the league.  That’s what happened last season….

Oh, and there were about 50 protestors.