Football: Aston Villa 0 West Ham United 0 - No end to Villa's barren stretch

THE TRAILER for BSkyB's coverage of last night's match at Villa Park said that the home team had given up winning for Lent. It has actually been nearer 80 days and nights than 40 since they last tasted victory in any competition, against Everton on 18 January, and the fast continued after a dull game that did little to ease a depression over the club not confined to one missing striker.

The draw, a fair enough result, kept West Ham two points above Villa, but seven behind Leeds, who can reasonably expect to stretch that margin at home to Nottingham Forest today. Neither of last night's combatants can now hold out much hope of catching them to claim the only Uefa Cup place on offer for League position. Whether they deserve it or not on this sort of showing, Villa desperately need the incentive of European football to give some meaning to the next few weeks and West Ham could use the money as much as the prestige.

Learning that fifth position would not be considered worthy of a Uefa Cup place whereas - in Newcastle's case - reaching an FA Cup semi-final would, has given the two clubs a common grievance that the Premier League are still hoping to rectify.

Last night, West Ham might have been expected to take greater advantage of a team so short of confidence. Losing Rio Ferdinand after only four minutes, to a tackle for which Mark Draper was rightly booked (Ferdinand's ankle will be X-rayed today as a precaution), was insufficient excuse for the limpness of their performance until late in the game, when they seemed to realise how vulnerable their opponents were.

The London side took almost until half-time to produce a scoring chance, Paolo Di Canio straying just offside as he stretched to turn in Marc Vivien Foe's cross-shot.

Dion Dublin, working impressively hard for a man with a gammy groin, had put his team in trouble on that occasion by losing the ball deep in his own half. He did better at the other end and deserved a goal with what the Carling Opta statistics assured us was his 100th goal attempt of the season - unfortunately not many of them are going in these days. In the 40th minute Dublin rose above Foe to head Steve Watson's chip meatily past Shaka Hislop, who was fortunate that the ball did not hit him and bounce in to the net after rebounding off a post.

Before that Villa had made all the running - such as there was - with Steve Lomas clearing off the line from Gareth Southgate, Hislop holding Dublin's 99th attempt and Mark Draper driving across goal.

Opportunities in an equally mundane second half were more evenly shared. Julian Joachim, picked out by Dublin and completely unmarked, controlled the pass well enough but suggested nervousness in snatching at the shot.

For the visitors Di Canio chipped over the bar after the best move of the night (not a lot of competition for that one) featuring Frank Lampard and Paul Kitson; Bosnich, shepherding the ball out of play, was startled to see Scott Minto retrieve it, swivel and hit the side-netting; and in the last minute, Kitson's side-footed effort was too deliberate to beat the goalkeeper.

If Carling Opta kept a count of disappointed spectators, Villa - watched by another healthy crowd of 36,813 - would win hands-down.

The Villa manager, John Gregory, who had switched to a 4-4-2 formation, said: "It wasn't the greatest game for neutrals, but we've had a shocking run and I took pleasure from the way they went about their job."

Aston Villa (4-4-2): Bosnich; Watson, Calderwood, Southgate, Wright; Stone, Taylor, Draper, Thompson (Merson, 86); Joachim, Dublin. Substitutes not used: Oakes (gk), Barry, Scimeca, Samuel.

West Ham (3-5-2): Hislop; Pearce, Ferdinand (Potts, 7), Ruddock; Sinclair, Lomas, Foe, Lampard, Minto; Kitson, Di Canio. Substitutes not used: Forrest (gk), Keller, Moncur, Berkovic.

Referee: G Willard (Worthing).