Match report

Last updated : 07 May 2011 By Stateside Villa

Villa and Wigan slogged out a dull 1-1 draw at Villa Park to inch Villa closer to safety.

Villa took about 7 minutes to muster any threat up front and that quickly petered out as Wigan bossed the midfield.

In the 10th minute, a shocker of a decision by Kyle Walker allowed Wigan to take the early lead. He decided to run through a crowded midfield 25 yards from his own goal, while Luke young stood on the left wing with nobody even 20 yards from him. Wigan stole the ball and Nzogbia ended up scoring after Villa tackles kept falling into the path of Wigan forwards.

Wigan made a mistake 6 minutes later. Watson fouled Ashley Young outside the area, unneccessarily. Young complained about the wall being only 8 yards away, but still managed to get his shot through the wall and the Wigan keeper did a poor job getting over to it and Villa were level.

Six minutes later, Heskey was unfortunate not to score when his volley was saved by the keeper, who did not see where the shot came from, but guessed the right way.

Heskey was in trouble not long after. He was hit from behind twice without a free kick awarded. The usually mild man went after the ref and appeared to shove him. He was lucky to escape with a yellow card.

Ashley Young appeared to be tripped in the box, but referee Jones denied his Villa team-mate's appeals. Moments later, Collins appeared to hit a Wigan player from behind and the ref's decision to award a free kick set Heskey off again.

Figureoa left Bent in a heap as he landed on the striker's foot as he was twisting away.

Things calmed down and Petrov should have done better than a shot with no fizz.

Wigan played the ball around for the rest of the half and won a succession of corners, which unsurprisingly Villa looked quite uncomfortable with, given their poor record on set pieces this season.

Villa began the second half with Albrighton on for Heskey as apparently the big man had had another altercation in the tunnel.

Despite a couple of long shots from Downing that went over bar and a decent cross that was kicked away by Al Habsi, in goal, Villa had no threat up front until the final 10 minutes. Rodagella and Moses went close for Wigan, but the visitors were more than happy to play keep away.

Villa's forwards and midfield lacked imagination, just like against Albion. They couldn't have broken down any side in any division with their slow predictable play. The coaching staff had no idea either. Apparently, nobody was on the bench that could break a defence down either.

Petrov and Reo-Coker have 1 league goal between them this season. Add in Makoun, Hogg, Bannon, Bradley, Sidwell, Ireland and Pires, all zero.  Only Ciaran Clarke has scored more than 1 from playing central mid and you see why Villa struggle to break anyone down.

Villa had the break they needed in the 83rd minute. Reo-Coker made a great tackle in defence. Walker hit Young with a slide rule pass. Young's first time pass should have been cut out by Caldwell, but, the defender missed the ball and Darren Bent was one on one with the keeper. For the second time this season in this position he fluffed it, knocking it straight at the goalie.

My Thursday night league has seen more lethal finishing than his in a one on one situation and our goals are not much larger than Ice Hockey nets!!!

The game's final 5 minutes finished as poorly as it's initial 5 minutes and the fans quite rightly booed a game that would have looked more at home at our neighbours ground.

Final thoughts. Is that how your coaches played you guys when you were at Liverpool? When nothing was going right at Anfield, they just stood pat and made no changes? I thought not. McCallister. You have no clue.