An injury time own goal by Richard Dunne cancelled out a second half penalty by Barry Bannan to end yet another game in stalemate, but a win would have been thoroughly undeserved.

The first half is not worth talking about. It was as bad as anything I’ve seen from Villa in recent years and, let’s face it, we’ve seen some poor stuff lately. QPR bossed two thirds of the possession and managed to outpass us almost 2:1.

The second half was a big improvement; almost as if the real players had finally turned up to replace their imposters. The shape and movement improved, the passing and possession followed. There were even a few signs of quality in there, if you can believe such a thing.

However, it took a gift of a penalty from referee Michael Oliver to set up the chance to break the deadlock. Gabby was adjudged to have been dragged back by Armand Traore. Barry Bannan slotted in at the bottom corner to record his first Premier League goal after a slight stutter step in the run up failed to fool Patrick Kenny.

Despite adding half of the Villa side to his notebook, it was Traore who picked up a second yellow from referee Oliver and an early exit as the clock ticked past the 90th minute following a reckless tackle on Marc Albrighton. Surely we could hold out against 10 men for the five added minutes?

Nope.

Alan Hutton skinned once again, a testing ball sent in to the near post, Richard Dunne unfortunately ended up sending it into his own net. Not much he could have done about it, he’ll need to be alert to such possibilities as long as Hutton is waving players in on that side.

Bottom line; a point flatters us despite an improved second half. But with three points in our hands with minutes to go and a man advantage, this is clearly two points dropped.

We had to suffer the ignominy of the home crowd singing “boring, boring Villa” during this one. The travelling fans were quick to point out that it was “one nil to the boring team” after we took the lead which drew the retort of “one nil to the referee” from the home fans.

It all ended with “you’re not singing any more”.

Quite.

Still unbeaten in the league though. Anyone know any catchy songs about that?