Teddy Sheringham marked what could be his last game for Manchester United by scoring the match winner against Aston Villa.

Sheringham has yet to announce that he will accept the club's offer of a new one-year deal to keep him at Old Trafford.

The 34-year-old striker, who will be a free agent this summer, is weighing up the various offers from home and abroad before pledging his allegiance for next season.

Sir Alex Ferguson has made no secret of his desire to keep Sheringham - and his latest goal will only heighten that feeling - although the United boss admits they cannot guarantee him the regular starting place he craves.

That, and the length of United's contract offer, could be critical in Sheringham's reasoning.

With eight first team regulars missing Ferguson had been forced to reshuffle his hand, but no-one would have predicted the side he sent out at Villa Park.

Former Villa striker Dwight Yorke, who was booed when he touched the ball, lined up in midfield alongside Phil Neville, while Danny Higginbotham made his first start in four months at left-back.

Given the makeshift nature of the champions' side, they took a while to settle and when Paul Scholes was presented with a half-chance on the right, his shot went for a throw in.

Villa were not doing much either and when Yorke gave the ball away to Benito Carbone in a dangerous position, United's new midfield anchor made amends with a perfectly-executed tackle.

Not surprisingly, with relatively little at stake, the match had a typical end-of-season feel.

Paul Merson, who was named Villa's player-of-the-year before the match, brought the crowd to life with a great piece of skill.

United gave possession to Lee Hendrie, who back-heeled the ball to Merson and his 20-yard chip was expertly touched away by Raimond van der Gouw.

Carbone then lashed an effort wide on the left before Scholes mustered United's first shot on target with a drive straight at Peter Enckelman, who replaced the rested David James.

Scholes was United's most threatening player and he tried his luck again only for Enckelman to save comfortably.

However the England midfielder would have been disappointed with his weak effort from a free kick 25-yards out, which failed to trouble Enckelman.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's match and season came to an abrupt halt when he was caught late by Ugo Ehiogu.

The Norwegian tried to carry on after receiving treatment, but he was replaced by Jordi Cruyff who came on to make his farewell appearance by United.

Merson then fashioned the best chance of the match so far for Carbone after a strong run down the right only for the Italian to shoot narrowly wide from his cross.

Ferguson gave Ronnie Wallwork a run out when he brought him on for Higginbotham at half-time and deployed him at right-back.

Most of the crowd basking in the sun at Villa Park had just started to nod off when Cruyff presented Sheringham with a great chance.

The midfielder sprung Villa's offside trap to send Sheringham clear on the right, but the striker dragged his shot across the goal.

That close shave spurred Villa into action and Dion Dublin headed the ball goalwards only for Neville to make a goal-line clearance.

Neither side was really in control and Ryan Giggs, who scored that goal against Arsenal on his last appearance at Villa Park, shot wide from a half opening.

The majority of United's chances continued to fall to Scholes, but his sights were just off and he unleashed yet another shot straight at Enckelman.

The popular Ian Taylor, who was back after missing six games with a hamstring injury, was given a chance to stake a late claim for a place in Villa's FA Cup final side when he replaced Hendrie on 64 minutes.

Then a minute later, Sheringham made amends for his earlier miss when he scored with his sixth goal of the season.

Villa could only half block Cruyff's cross and the ball broke to Sheringham who planted it left-footed into the corner of the net even though Enckelman managed to get a hand to the shot.

Cruyff was certainly going out on a high and he danced through the Villa defence only for Enckelman to save his shot.

Dublin almost snatched a point for Villa against his old club at the death. First he drove narrowly over before he crashed a header against the bar in the final minute.

But there was no denying record-breaking United their 11th successive league win.

Teams:

Aston Villa: Enckelman, Ehiogu, Southgate, Barry, Delaney, Boateng (Thompson 80), Hendrie (Taylor 64), Merson, Wright, Dublin, Carbone (Joachim 59).

Subs Not Used: Samuel, Cutler.

Booked: Delaney.

Man Utd: Van Der Gouw, P. Neville, Berg, Silvestre, Irwin, Higginbottom (Wallwork 46), Sheringham, Scholes, Giggs, Yorke, Solskjaer (Cruyff 32).

Subs Not Used: Fortune, Greening, Stewart.

Booked: Scholes, Cruyff.

Goals: Sheringham 65.

Att: 39,217

Ref: P Durkin (Dorset).