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Aston Villa 0-0 West Ham United
Match Reports, 16:05, January 17, 2010 ,
Aston Villa Villa wasted a great opportunity to close in a Champions League place after being held to a goal-less draw by West Ham.
Villa could have gone level with rivals Man City and Tottenham in the chase for the fourth Champions League spot with a win but were left frustrated by a strong rearguard action by the relegation strugglers.
Martin O'Neill's men came into the game at Villa Park after back-to-back league defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool.
A point for the visitors, however, moved them out of the bottom three and up two places on goal difference to 16th.
Villa started the brighter and enjoyed the greater of the possession in the first-half, but found it difficult to fashion many chances against a stubborn Hammers backline, who seemed content to sit deep and look for openings on the break.
Gianfranco Zola's game-plan very nearly paid dividends with just a few minutes of the game played. There seemed little danger when Nouble picked up the ball with his back to goal 15 yards inside his own half, but his fine run at the heart of the Villa defence finally saw him with space to shoot inside the home side's area. However, his final shot failed to match his approach work as he fired over.
That in truth, was virtually all the Hammers offered in attack throughout the first half as Villa pushed forward, winning corner after corner looking for the first goal.
Ashley Young's cross from the left was heading goalwards and needed a save from Robert Green to turn the ball away and just moments later the best chance of the half fell to Gabriel Agbonlahor as he brought the ball down and turned smartly to fire at goal from 12 yards. Green, however, was equal to it, diving to his right to turn the ball around the post.
The second-half started much the same way and it seemed only a matter of time before the hosts found the opening. James Milner came close as he fired just wide from the edge of the area and Agbonlahor wasted a wonderful chance turning and shooting over from 10 yards.
West Ham grew as the action progressed and with the introduction of Alessandro Diamanti for the final quarter of the match, they became an attacking threat themselves. His ball to Junior Stanislas was smashed across goal and James Collins just managed to turn the ball over when he could so easily have put through his own goal.
It looked as though the game was heading towards a stalemate when Agbonlahor wasted arguably the best chance of the match right at the death. He turned his man well to get clean through on goal, but his next touch was poor, Green came out to turn the ball away and that was how it ended.