It was honours even at Villa Park after a frustrating performance led to points being dropped for the second time against Fulham this season. An own goal from John Pantsil and a superb goal from Kyle Walker were both cancelled out by goals from Andrew Johnson and Clint Dempsey. Brad Friedel won’t want to watch the replays.

It started extremely promisingly, some exceptionally fluid play from Villa at times, Jean Makoun at the heart of much that was positive. An early effort from Darren Bent, slotting home Downing’s parried shot, was chalked off for being marginally offside, but it was an encouraging sign of intent.

Downing was a force to be reckoned with down the right, driving toward Fulham’s back line with every opportunity, fitting that the opening goal came from his outside of the boot delivery, Pantsil nodding into his own net with Gabby charging in behind.

Fulham were allowed to assert themselves towards the end of the half, Steve Sidwell in particular playing like a man with a point to prove, but they were barely able to worry Friedel by the time the break came.

The second half looked to be more of the same with Gabby and Darren Bent both being set up for chances that they should really have done better with. Somehow though, and Sidwell playing a better game than most of us have seen might have much to do with it, Fulham grew in confidence and began to stake a claim.

It’s was Sidwell’s 4th shot from distance, parried by Friedel straight back where it came from, that was pounced on by Andrew Johnson diving low to head in. No one in claret and blue covered themselves in glory, but Friedel really should have palmed the shot to the side. Johnson did well to get on the end of the chance, it has to be said.

Villa showed flashes of their early form, but some of the fire seemed to have died down. With legs starting to look tired, Houllier switched Gabby into a more central role and Ash out to the left and the benefits were felt almost immediately as Ash won a free kick from Danny Murphy attempting to charge up the flank.

The free kick was cleared and fell to Downing on the other flank and he sent the ball back to Stiliyan Petrov who quite lazily laid the ball off to Kyle Walker, seemingly exasperated at a lack of alternative options. It didn’t go down well with the home support, but Walker responded in positive fashion, setting off on another arrow-like run toward goal before unleashing a powerful low drive to the bottom corner that Schwarzer had no chance of saving.

With 18 minutes left on the clock, the game was far from safe, Fulham’s central partnership of Sidwell and Murphy were winning the battle over Makoun and the tired looking Petrov.

In the end, the equaliser came from a corner, Clint Dempsey delaying his run just enough to ghost into empty space, Brad Friedel the only player able to make a challenge, but unfortunately he was second to the ball and Dempsey headed in.

From there, the game tapered out. Marc Albrighton came on for Petrov with barely more than five minutes left on the clock, Emile Heskey ran on to replace Gabby at a corner in the 87th minute, but it didn’t make any difference. There was the usual frantic chase for a winner, leaving worrying amounts of space at the back, but neither side were able to break the deadlock.

Overall

Once again much to be positive about in terms of individual performances. Downing was excellent, particularly during the first half, as was Ashley Young playing just behind Darren Bent. Bent himself and Gabby were largely ineffectual, the logic of employing Gabby out wide now lost on just about everyone, myself included.

Jean Makoun was again the heart of the team, although he didn’t quite manage to match the impressive passing numbers from Old Trafford; just the 61 complete passes for an 83% success rate today. Petrov, I thought, was much better during the first half, but faded badly; he simply does not have the fitness to keep up with the pace in the Premiership for a full game and in the end made Sidwell look better than he is.

Kyle Walker was excellent for the most part, although he frustrated by wasting some great positions with poor crosses, he must have made up for that with a great goal. He still looks a little suspect defensively at times, but that’s not uncommon for an attacking full back.

Tactically, Houllier threatens to erode a lot of the goodwill he’s amassed during January with an insistence of playing Gabby wide and Ash centrally despite neither player being offered the chance to work to their strengths. Whatever the underlying rationale behind sticking with this approach, sooner or later the manager must concede that it isn’t the most effective use of the personnel at his disposal.

Today, although I wouldn’t claim that Fulham weren’t decent value for their point, it still feels a lot like two points were dropped and we’re just not in position to be that generous. The positive vibe might be back, and rightly so, but we can’t get complacent, there’s still much work to be done.

On to the next one

Now we look to the next one, away to Blackpool next Saturday. Holloway’s men were beaten 5-3 in an incredible game at Goodison, as he said himself, Blackpool are in danger of slipping into the part of the table most would have predicted they’d occupy and they’re now one place below us in 15th.

We were less than convincing in beating a weakened Blackpool at Villa Park, their determination alone is enough to cause concern about the reverse fixture, especially since we still don’t seem to have the ability to kill off a stubborn opponent or, indeed, hold out against a determined one.

As today served to prove, still moving in the right direction, still a long way to go. Next time, Petrov’s place has to be at risk to Michael Bradley who was paraded in front of the Villa Park crowd, but not included in the 18 man squad.

Aston Villa starting XI: Friedel, Walker, Dunne, Collins, Clark, Petrov, Makoun, Downing, Agbonlahor, Young, Bent. Subs: Marshall, Delfouneso, Pires, Cuellar, Heskey, Reo-Coker, Albrighton.
Opponent starting XI: Schwarzer, Baird, Hangeland, Hughes, Pantsil, Dempsey, Sidwell, Murphy, Duff, A Johnson, Dembele. Subs: Stockdale, Salcido, Gera, Gudjohnsen, Kakuta, Greening, Davies.