It finished a point apiece at Bloomfield Road after neither side were able to improve on early goals from Gabby Agbonlahor and Eliot Grandin in a frenetic game that saw Jean II Makoun receive a straight red card for a two footed tackle with 20 minutes left to play.

It was a game that kicked off with a vibrant pace, both sides creating early chances, but it was Gabby Agbonlahor who opened the scoring with a superb run from the left, latching onto Darren Bent’s nicely weighted pass. Gab did well to dig the ball out from under his feet before taking it around Richard Kingson with a neat bit of skill and then finishing with his left foot from a very tight angle.

The lead lasted all of four minutes though, Grandin working himself the opportunity to head in Charlie Adam’s corner at the near post practically unchallenged. Another lead squandered, another goal conceded from a set piece.

Carlos Cuellar was forced off with a hamstring injury just before the half hour mark, James Collins coming on to replace him alongside Richard Dunne.

Blackpool did a good job during the first half of pressing Villa whenever in possession, particularly in the centre with Makoun frequently crowded out. Distribution to the front was restricted, Darren Bent struggled to impose himself, the only real outlet going forward being Stewart Downing on the right who was extremely lively, having three shots at goal, only one on target, but the other two going close.

After the break, it was clear some of the rhythm was missing, Blackpool grew in confidence, well motivated defensively, organised and precise going forwards, some desperate tackle required at the back to keep them at bay. Dunne, in particular, made one especially important lunge to snuff out DJ Campbell with a point blank chance.

But Blackpool created plenty of opportunities, mostly restricted to shooting from outside of the box, but several clever diagonal balls kept our back four busy. Kyle Walker was put through the mill for a period, perhaps struggling for protection from the leggy looking Downing.

Houllier elected to withdraw Darren Bent, who had played a full 90 minutes for England during the week and was in danger of becoming a passenger, and brought in Emile Heskey with the aim of asserting his presence on the back line a little more.

Disaster struck with 20 minutes left to play when Makoun proved that he is actually human, leaving Howard Webb little choice in sending him off for a challenge where both feet were clearly off the ground with his studs showing. There was nothing malicious about it, it was just poorly executed, but he had managed to get away with a couple of earlier challenges which might have ended badly if mistimed by just a fraction of a second.

No complaints about the sending off then. Houllier was forced to make his third and final switch, Michael Bradley handed his debut in place of Gabby, charged with shoring up the middle alongside Reo-Coker in an orthodox 4-4-1 system, Ash taking up position on the left.

Ash sprang into life on the left, but got little help from Howard Webb as he became the subject of several tackles which at least deserved a second look. Webb wasn’t interested, Young’s frustration probably contributed to later being denied a penalty shout which, once again, at least deserved looking at again.

I’m not 100% certain it was a penalty at this stage, so I’ll reserve judgement, but the referee doesn’t have that luxury and elected not to hand us the opportunity to stage a late smash and grab. Perhaps it’s one more example of Webb bottling big decisions, but it would have been far, far more than we deserved.

Ultimately, I turn to the old cliche, this was a game of two halves. The first 45 minutes sparkled with energy and promise, the second, when I hoped our superior quality would shine through, descended into a poor quality kick about. Perhaps no better personified than by Stewart Downing who was superb before half time, but looked like he was running in sand after the break.

Not the best set of circumstances for Bradley to get his first taste of life in the Premier League and always a challenge to pick up the pace of any game late on, but I got the impression that 20 minutes was probably about his limit today in any case. With Makoun now having to serve a three match ban, he’ll no doubt get another chance again very soon.

We’re left now in 15th place, still only three points above the relegation zone. We can once again feel some contentment with quality players at times playing quality football, but once more it’s not enough. We can’t feeling confident about potential, sooner or later that promise must be realised and turned into points.

Houllier has some time to re-group before Blackburn come to Villa Park. I think he’ll need it.

Aston Villa starting XI: Friedel, Walker, Dunne, Cuellar, Clark, Reo-Coker, Makoun, Downing, Agbonlahor, Young, Bent. Subs: Marshall, Pires, Albrighton, Bradley, Delph, Heskey, Collins.
Blackpool starting XI: Kingson, Evatt, Cathcart, Carney, Baptiste, Adam, Vaughan, Harewood, Campbell, Varney, Gradin. Subs: Reid, Southern, Beattie, Puncheon, Phillips, Eardley, Kettings.