Dion Dublin and Joey Gudjonsson left Villa Park with their heads hung in shame on Monday night. They may not be the last.

Yesterday Graham Taylor, the Aston Villa manager, reflected on a return to the bad old days of hooliganism. The prospect did not please him.

"Football isn't worth this," Taylor said, referring to the violent scenes inside Villa Park during the game and on the neighbouring Aston streets after it. "People have got to be strong enough to actually say that. There has got to be enough of us to actually turn round and say 'hold on a minute, enough is enough'. I'm all for rivalry and banter. But there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

"The game was not a good advert for football. We fell down in that second half and the actions of some of my players were indefensible. We have not only let ourselves down as a club but also Birmingham and the Midlands."

Taylor's honesty was matched by the public contrition of Dublin, whose out-of-character butt on Robbie Savage not only resulted in his dismissal but was also the signal for the simmering malevolence in the Villa Park stands to boil over into violence.

Dublin already faces two punishments. A club fine will cost him two weeks' wages and a three-match suspension could prove costly for Villa. The local police may also be looking into the incident.

If that was not depressing, Taylor now has to worry about the performance of his team. In his second spell in charge of the club he had hoped to lead Villa into the Champions League. Instead he may face a battle with relegation.

Dublin's ban means the club will be minus their leading scorer for a third of their remaining nine games.

"We became complacent after excellent wins against Blackburn and Middlesbrough," Taylor said. "The players were warned about complacency setting in. You could see them thinking after the Middlesbrough game 'we've got an away win at last, now we're in business'. And we should have been in business.

"But three defeats later we're looking over our shoulders at the group behind us who are clawing us back. Our next two home games are against Manchester United and Arsenal. And sandwiched between them is a trip to Southampton. We've got to get our fingers out."

As if those three games were not daunting enough, Villa must also play three teams challenging for Europe in Chelsea, Newcastle United and Everton, and another three in danger of relegation, West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds.

Indeed, it is difficult to envisage where the next point will come from with dressing- room confidence at rock bottom.

"It'll take a lot to lift us from this," admitted Gareth Barry. "Confidence is down to zero now. This has shaken us up."

To compound Villa's problems, there is also the prospect of the FA's investigation into Monday's shameful scenes that included a coin being thrown at Birmingham's manager Steve Bruce and a Villa supporter going on to the pitch to remonstrate with Savage.

"Obviously we are taking what happened very seriously. Our crowd safety adviser will be talking to the police and both clubs to ascertain further details," confirmed the FA's Adrian Bevington.

"We will also be looking at the reports from the referee, match observer and the police. It is disappointing to see individuals running on to the pitch. Thankfully it is relatively uncommon in this country. We would hope anyone found to be involved in this behaviour is immediately barred from grounds up and down the country and also found facing action from police authorities."