Posted by John Meyerwitz

A disappointing crowd that fell about ten thousand short of capacity witnessed a forgettable scoreless draw when Wolves paid a visit to Villa Park on Saturday.

Other than a flurry of Villa chances at the beginning of the second half, neither team was willing to sacrifice a safe point for the chance at three.

Villa put out most of the lineup from last week’s 3-1 defeat of Blackburn, but having to face a real defense prevented another triumph of attacking.  In fact, the game essentially came to a screeching halt in the 67th minute when Mick McCarthy introduced two subs and the most negative of tactics.

McLeish countered in the 74th minute with the insertion of Barry Bannan, who made little impact, and in the 85th minute with Marc Albrighton, who made no impact.

The match stats tell a story of Emile Heskey playing the full 90, but he must have fallen through a trap door at some point and disappeared for the rest of the game.  His impact was minimal, to say the least.

Darren Bent must be happy to go on international duty this week, where Stewart Downing and Ashley Young will remind him what decent midfield delivery was like.  Bent looked like a hungry restaurant customer who simply could not find a waiter.  At some point this season he my have to rip the ball from the keeper’s hands and take it home with him, that’s going to be the only way he gets to see it on Saturdays.

Not to dwell on a hypothetical, but… would it be such a bad thing to risk playing the youngsters Bannan and Albrighton for the entire game?  It would mean a bench spot for Heskey and Delph; but do they deserve any better?  Manchester United have played a quartet of youngsters this month and all they did was take nine points from three fixtures. 

With three attacking midfielders feeding the hungry Bent, and a real threat of goals, the fans may creep back in to Villa Park.  After all, it beats checking out the lower league on the blue side of town.

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