All season Lambert has vigorously defended his decision to utilise young players but this is the time when experienced, calm heads are sorely needed, for Villa's propensity to make fatal mistakes continues to prove their downfall.
Lambert's determination not to panic is admirable, and his team lie only six points behind Fulham in 10th place and are below Wigan on goal difference alone, despite a 15th defeat of the season. The Scot's position is safe, even if he fails in his survival mission, and suffering a similar fate to his mentor, Martin O'Neill, is not a distraction he needs to worry about. But relegation would leave him open to the prospect of losing the likes of Christian Benteke and Andreas Weimann in the summer.
There has always been a nagging feeling that Villa's final game of the season, at Wigan, could prove pivotal and the scenario of Lambert requiring a result there is growing with each passing week.
"I don't think we can prioritise," Lambert said yesterday. "Every game is huge for us. We are playing well and we don't look like a side that's down there. Everyone is in it together and we move along to the next game. We are playing well enough to win games. Confidence is a big part of the game. We are not lacking in that. We are making errors because we're young but the confidence is there."
Liverpool certainly appear on course to end the season with a flourish and nobody epitomised their battling qualities more than Gerrard, who spectacularly cleared a Benteke header off the line five minutes after his decisive penalty.
Finishing the campaign strongly will also enhance Liverpool hopes of retaining Suárez and the forward was at his scavenging best here, pulling Villa's callow defenders all over the pitch. However, it could have been different for the home team. While they may have been stretched defensively in the first half they were effervescent going forward, with the pace and power of Benteke, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Weimann a constant nuisance.
Agbonlahor has recently displayed the qualities that led to an England call-up under Fabio Capello not so long back and should have eased the tension in the 16th minute but his close-range shot was superbly blocked by Pepe Reina. But Villa earned the goal their menacing approach work deserved through Benteke.
The Belgium international is now easily in the £20?million bracket and while Suárez wasted chances, Benteke required only one opportunity, directing a fierce half-volley into the corner from Agbonlahor's knock-down. It was Benteke's 18th goal of an excellent breakthrough season.
Liverpool must have feared an excruciating afternoon as they struggled to find a way past Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan. Saves from Suárez and Gerrard in particular, late in the half, were stunning and it seemed as if Rodgers was doomed to add another hard-luck story to his collection.
But the visitors were level three minutes into the second period. Phillipe Coutinho's pass dissected the two Villa centre-halves to free Jordan Henderson, whose chipped finish over Guzan was clinical.
Villa heads dropped and on the hour Suárez's slaloming run was savagely brought to an abrupt end by Baker – no debate, no dive storm, no controversy. Gerrard's penalty transformed the game and Lambert's players never really recovered.
"It was a poor goal two minutes in, when we were attacking, but Liverpool can do that with the players that they've got," said Lambert. "From our point of view it's a poor goal."
Benteke thought he had equalised only for Gerrard to produce a sensational clearance and as time ebbed away Villa ran out of ideas.
Four times already this season Villa have scraped their way out of the bottom three but the hands of relegation remain clasped around their throats. Now is the time to stand up and be counted and prove that Lambert's bold vision is not short-sighted
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