Aston Villa 1, West Ham 1: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

Apr 20 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

That’s now 11 games without a victory, including eight in the league, while Villa have to go back to January 10 against the Baggies for their last top-flight home victory.

For West Ham at the weekend, read Wigan and Stoke, even if Villa’s superiority wasn’t quite so glaring as against the Latics and the late deflation was nowhere near as devastating as against the Potters.

Having overcome their recent habit of conceding early on by scoring first, confidence was high, particularly with quickly-established scapegoat Emile Heskey producing his best performance so far of his Villa career.

Whether it was the all-white experience of wearing his England colours, the change strip seemed to bring out the best in Heskey who slid home James Milner’s precise pass from a Gareth Barry break on 11 minutes and went on to strike the post and force a second-half save from Hammers keeper Robert Green.

Indeed, the former Blues striker went some way towards silencing those lighthearted taunts about him being Villa’s equivalent of Liam Ridgewell, namely a secret agent planted to bring down Second City rivals from within, with his first Villa Park goal and impressive all-round display.

With Heskey replacing hamstring victim Gabby Agbonlahor after overcoming a similar problem, 13-goal strike partner John Carew wasted a chance to overtake the injured Brummie at the top of Villa’s scoring charts, nodding over a sitter from Ashley Young’s cross.

Although that miss was by far the worst, it was typical of an afternoon when Barry and Milner came close with their heads and Young and Stiliyan Petrov came close with their feet, while the former Newcastle winger also tested Green and Carew poked an effort into the side-netting.

West Ham’s kit man might not have come prepared but the same could not be said about Gianfranco Zola’s players, who despite contending with sustained periods of pressure from their hosts, did at least attempt to push forward and give as good as they got.

Brad Friedel’s safe pair of hands allowed him to make a crucial pair of saves from Junior Stanislas and David Di Michele early on and Mark Noble and Luis Boa Morte late on, while Di Michele also spurned a first-half header of Carew-like proportions.

But the Hammers, who had offered to cut off their offending pale blue sleeves during the perceived colour clash, instead rolled them up, metaphorically, to force an 85th-minute equaliser when Diego Tristan fortuitously diverted in Kieron Dyer’s misdirected shot.

Rob Styles’ failure to spot a blatant stoppage-time handball by Hammers’ defender James Tomkins, under pressure from Carew in the penalty area, made a mockery of the referee’s earlier concerns that a kit clash could have caused him to make mistakes.

The Hampshire official proved he is quite capable of that on his own and after infuriating O’Neill, perhaps he is one Villa Park visitor, unlike all those away teams, who doesn’t warrant the perfect hosts’ traditionally warm welcome.