Charles N’Zogbia’s well taken opener was cancelled out by a rare Ashley Young free kick during a first half which threatened to boil over, Emile Heskey providing much of the heat, but the second half failed to live up to expectations. Neither side can feel aggrieved with an equal share of the spoils.

It was a strange game. Wigan started the livelier, better organised side. Villa’s early response mostly coming from an industrious Kyle Walker looking to exploit space down the right. Ironically, it would be a mistake from Walker, making a thrusting run infield, that would lead to Wigan’s goal.

It was a typically positive run from Walker, setting off diagonally from the right back position, but he was unfortunately robbed of possession rather cheaply. Wigan smartly exploited the gaps among a particularly gormless looking back line, working the ball to N’Zogbia who fired to the far post, Friedel little chance of making the save.

The lead wasn’t to last long though. Just seven minutes later, Ashley Young stood over a free kick a little more than 25 yards out. Despite the Wigan wall’s refusal to retreat the full ten yards, Young fired a low, curling shot which bounced awkwardly in front of Ali Al Habsi and evaded his dive to the far post.

I didn’t see what followed myself, but there were reports of a heated exchange between Young and Stiliyan Petrov following a debate over who would take the free kick in the first place. As I didn’t see it, I can’t comment and I wouldn’t normally mention something I didn’t see, but it hints at something that appeared to be bubbling under the surface throughout the game.

And it may have come frothing to the top via Emile Heskey who was booked for excessively protesting referee Michael Jones’ failure to award him a free kick after a series of physical tussles with the Wigan defense. Things got heated enough for Brad Friedel to trot up from goal in an attempt to calm the big man down.

Whatever it was that irked Heskey, he wasn’t going to let it lie and continued to berate Jones at every opportunity to the point that captain Petrov was asked to intervene, clearly leaving Heskey on his final warning with ten minutes of the half remaining.

Nevertheless, Villa bossed much of the remainder of the first half, producing some of the best football of the game, save for a series of Wigan corners during injury time which would surely have given us reason to expect an inevitable late goal from a set piece. Fortunately it never came.

Second half

There was no way Gary McAllister could send Heskey back out after the break and elected to bring Marc Albrighton on in his place, switching Stewart Downing to the left and Young in behind Darren Bent.

The initial signs were positive as Albrighton looked to provide a new threat on the right, but Wigan responded well, they managed to hold possession and negated the new danger by focusing their efforts on the opposite flank with some slick passing.

Downing was forced to show his defensive abilities, but also provided what little goal threat Villa had during the second period, Darren Bent really struggling to get himself into the game. Unfortunately, with Downing on the left, the goal chances he carved out relied on his weaker right foot and didn’t trouble the Wigan goal keeper.

Bent latched onto a golden opportunity late on, the sort of chance you’d back the striker to finish if it were his only chance of the game, with only Al Habsi to beat. The Omani goalkeeper was quickly off his line and did well to force Bent to blink first, snuffing out what was probably the best opportunity of the game.

And the match just limped to the finish line from there. A bit disappointing really. A point wasn’t an unfair result and might prove invaluable to Wigan. For us, well we’re still not quite safe, much depends on the other games this weekend though.

With only Arsenal and Liverpool left, there’s little reason to expect any more points if we continue to play the way we have in the last couple of games. 42 points should be enough, but we’re not mathematically certain of survival yet.

It’s a frustrating end to what appeared to be a mini-revival just a few weeks ago. Much like this game, it promised to deliver several times, but in the end just whimpered out. Once again, for all the talk of making amends for the last disappointment, the actions didn’t match the words on the pitch.

This season just can’t be over soon enough.