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Aston Villa sealed a place in Europe next season after a controversial John Carew goal gave them a 1-0 win over Hull City at Villa Park, their first Premier League victory in 10 matches.

Carew appeared to be in an offside position when he touched Ashley Young's first-half centre past Boaz Myhill.

The result put Villa back in fifth position and left Phil Brown's battling Tigers a solitary place and three points above the relegation zone.

Hull started well enough and almost took an early lead when captain Ian Ashbee sent a shot whistling just wide of the right-hand post in the second minute.

Ashbee did not last much longer after a 50-50 challenge with James Milner saw the Tigers man limp out of play with what appeared to be a badly-bruised knee.

From then on Hull looked disjointed and lacking in midfield bite, although Villa offered little going forward to hint at anything other than mid-table quality.

The hosts took the lead through Carew's dubious strike.

With 34 minutes played, Young raced on to a Gareth Barry through-ball after the Villa captain combined with Stiliyan Petrov to rob George Boateng on the edge of the visitors' box.

Young cut inside from the left and played a delightful chipped cross that Carew - who appeared to be just offside - poked past Myhill into the bottom-right corner.

Villa will argue that the Norway hit-man was level with Michael Turner but he seemed to have got half a yard beyond him at the moment Young clipped the ball in.

Hull were lucky to escape a penalty shout soon afterwards when midfielder Boateng clumsily tackled Carew from behind to send him sprawling.

Gabriel Agbonlahor forced Myhill to tip over in first-half injury-time and, while Villa deserved the lead, it was hardly a classic encounter between two sides who were free-scoring earlier in the season.

The second half started with the hosts showing more attacking intent and Hull were kept in the match by the antics of former Villa trainee Myhill.

He tipped Barry's swerving right-foot drive wide less than two minutes after the restart and denied Milner on 65 with a smart, low save.

Myhill made an incredible stop on 78 minutes when he somehow palmed Agbonlahor's close-range header over the bar after the Villa striker was given what seemed an open goal by Zat Knight's header across the face of the six-yard box.

The wonder-save gave Hull hope and the last quarter hour - which included five minutes of added time - saw Martin O'Neill's men on the rack, so unused to winning that even the most rudimentary approach by the Tigers set their backs against the wall.

Chances came for Daniel Cousin, Manucho and Kamil Zayatte but good positioning by Brad Friedel and poor finishing from the visitors meant Villa were able to ride out the pressure, despite a flurry of late corners that saw Myhill join the attack.

Villa are now two points ahead of sixth-placed Everton with three games remaining, and while they cannot catch Arsenal in fourth, they will play in the inaugural Europa League as they are 10 points ahead of West Ham in seventh.

Hull, meanwhile, have three points over 18th-placed Newcastle but the Magpies have a superior goal difference that leaves them a win away from safety.

Reda Maher / Eurosport