Bradford City 0, Aston Villa 3 - Robert Molenaar has offered a bizarre solution to Bradford City's desperate plight: "We should start playing like a team bottom of the table."

It might sound double Dutch from the centre-half from Volendam but Molenaar believes the Bantams may need a change in style to have any hope.

Desperate times require desperate measures and one glance at the Premiership table shows how far back City are slipping.

The 3-0 loss to Aston Villa left them ten points off safety and Molenaar admitted: "We feel we are in the corner of the ring where all the punches are flying and we're the ones being punched.

"It never was the prettiest league table for us and it isn't getting any better."

Molenaar's blunder pulled the rug from under City's feet when his loose pass, intercepted by Juan Pablo Angel, set up Darius Vassell's first goal.

The Terminator held up his hand for the mistake but also wondered if it was time to ditch the short-passing approach which put him in trouble.

Molenaar said: "We've been defending very well the last couple of games by passing the ball around,but if you are letting goals in like that should you carry on?

"If you want to make it a passing game like a lot of players in the team do then you are going to take a little bit of a risk.

"I'm not saying our tactics are wrong but you don't get points for style. We don't play like a bottom of the table team but maybe we should and get into them more.

"Perhaps we should make it more of a battle than a passing game. Do we want to pass it or get forward and put pressure on the other team or get in behind them and see what comes of it?

"We need to decide whether we want to get it up the pitch and battle it out for 50-50s or do we want to play it in to feet? That might not be the answer, especially if you saw the first half when we had a lot of play but it didn't do anything for us.

"When the opposition score and we have to get back into it, that's a hell of a task for us. Once we were behind against Villa every attack seemed to be stopping before the halfway line.

"It's not that we have given up, we are all giving 100 per cent. It doesn't matter if we are one or two down or if we're winning, every effort is there.

"I've got some friends over from Holland and whenever they talk about English football, the first thing they say is how hard you work.

"We bossed the game first half but the second was there's from the start. They came out after half-time much more aggressive but we have to cope with that little bit of pressure.

"Unfortunately if you give away a goal like I did then you are going to struggle."

Boss Jim Jefferies admitted the first goal "knocked the stuffing out of us."

"I told the players at half-time not to give away any presents and that's what we did," he said.

"Robert went for a difficult ball with players in front of him and trying to find someone in the middle of the park was an unnecessary risk. It was a slack pass and it cost us."

Mind you, City should have been at least one goal to the good by the time Vassell coolly slid his opening strike across Gary Walsh.

Again there was another great chance before the game had settled. And for the third match running, it went begging.

Dean Windass was the culprit, heading wide in the eighth minute from an inch-perfect Eoin Jess free-kick. His close-range header across goal faded at the last second, but not enough to creep inside the post and the scoring drought continued.

The Bantams were by far the better side in the first 45 minutes but for all the neat passing and careful approach play, there were no goals in the locker.

Villa, nothing special before the interval, had to get better when they resumed. Unfortunately City's rhythm had been broken and ten minutes in, Vassell was being submerged by jubilant dark blue shirts.

Peter Beagrie, who has been stopped from joining Sheffield United on loan, was unleashed from the bench as City went to four at the back to chase the game.

But Beagrie hadn't touched it before keeper Gary Walsh cleared straight to Vassell who banged in number two from an acute angle. Chins were cemented to the floor well before sub Julian Joachim added a third three minutes from the end.