Danny Ings fires parting shot
It was Ings 11th goal of the season and possibly his last strike for the club, with the out-of-contract forward expected to leave Turf Moor in the summer.
Villa, subdued for most of the first half, struggled to make a breakthrough although Tom Heaton saved from Gabriel Agbonlahor, Christian Benteke and Ashley Westwood.
Defeat saw Villa finish fourth bottom in the Premier League, ahead of the FA Cup final with Arsenal on Saturday, after another brush with the drop.
Ings cashed in on poor Villa defending when he looped a header over Villa’s debutant Jed Steer after Ashley Barnes’ clever knockdown.
Villa should have levelled after 16 minutes only for Ron Vlaar to blaze wide from 15 yards after Tom Cleverley found him free in the box.
A subdued Villa Park watching in near silence as the hosts stuttered. And they were almost stunned again on 26 minutes when Ings should have doubled Burnley’s lead.
George Boyd tricked his way to the byline and left Charles N’Zogbia trailing but Ings could only balloon his cross over.
The quiet Benteke then saw a volley deflect wide eight minutes before the break, before Heaton saved his downward header two minutes later.
Heaton also tipped Westwood’s stinging drive over in first-half injury-time and Villa kept pressing after the break. Benteke and Fabian Delph lashed wide but the hosts lacked the quality to break through.
Yet Agbonlahor should have levelled on 63 minutes when he fired straight at Heaton after Benteke had bulldozed his way through.
Instantly, though, Burnley broke and Steer needed to block Boyd’s attempted chip after the midfielder broke past Villa’s static defence.
It was the Clarets’ only second-half chance as the hosts continued to make the running and Heaton needed to be at his agile best to deny Delph and N’Zogbia. But Villa’s threat waned with Burnley having the luxury of substituting Ings at the death.
Steer, Bacuna (Hutton 80), Vlaar, Baker, N’Zogbia, Cleverley (Sinclair 72), Westwood, Delph, Agbonlahor, Benteke, Grealish.
Heaton, Trippier, Keane, Shackell, Mee, Boyd, Ulvestad (Taylor 65), Jones, Arfield, Barnes (Vokes 34), Ings (Reid 87).
Mike Jones
