yes, place the login form on the template and set it to post to the login page.
validation toolkit cannot be used to validate the info in the form against what is in the database.
Use the failed login redirect for this.
Set the login failure to redirect back to the login page using a querystring:
login?login=failed
then add ann if statement to show the message:
<?php if(isset($_GET['login']) && $_GET['login'] == "falied") { ?>
email and/or password wrong!
<?php } ?>