Aston Villa 0 Fulham 0
Young had a half-chance when Gabriel Agbonlahor squared the ball to him on the edge of the box but he summed up proceedings by shooting high over Schwarzer's goal.
Steve Sidwell was guilty of a glaring miss after 39 minutes when it looked easier to score.
Young arrowed in a free-kick from 30 yards out and Sidwell timed his run perfectly to find himself unmarked six yards out but he headed over when he needed only the deftest of touches.
Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel was called into meaningful action for the first time two minutes later to tip over a 20-yarder from Dempsey.
O'Neill would have wanted a positive response from his side after they seldom moved out of second gear in the first half.
But Young would have been disappointed to scuff his shot wide after a centre from James Milner had only been half-cleared.
Milner started to see more of the ball but screwed his shot from the edge of the Fulham boss well wide.
Petrov and Luke Young had shots deflected wide during a spell of four successive corners from Villa.
Schwarzer came to Fulham's rescue when he tipped a close-range header from Barry onto the crossbar from another dangerous Ashley Young free-kick.
Then Friedel did well to beat out a fierce angled drive from Simon Davies at the expense of a corner.
Barry missed another good chance when he headed across the goal when unmarked from an Ashley Young free-kick.
