Everton 0 - 0 Aston Villa

Half-time: 0 - 0

The second half wasn't much better, even though Everton did actually make some chances. Tony Grant made a very rare appearance off the subs bench – his first for Everton since he came on as a sub against Coventry City in April – but to little effect.

A critical 2 points lost as Everton stretch their winless streak to TWO MONTHS!

Now that I've got that off my chest, onto the team. No real surprises today as Walter chose, what I guess, must be near to our full strength side. Weir was brought straight back after suspension and Collins returned after his rest, neither decision could really be quibbled with. The two to make way were Cleland and Xavier. So, it was Gerrard in goal, a back four made up of our four best defenders on current form, Dunne, Gough, Weir and Unsworth, a midfield of Collins and Hutchison in the centre with Barmby wideright and Pembridge wide left. Up front it was Jeffers and Campbell and on the bench we had Simonsen, Ball, Cleland, Grant and Xavier.

This was one of those frustrating matches that never seemed to get going. Villa who were on a terrible run came to defend, they were committed, hard working and organised, they didn't have much spark going forward but by God did they make life difficult for us. Faced by such obdurate opposition we were found sadly wanting, and like it had been against Chelsea last week, the area of the pitch were I felt we were deficient was midfield.

Throughout a fairly wretched first half chances were few and far between and any semblance of flowing, pass and move football was conspicuous by it's absence. I had hoped for a little reaction after the Chelsea game, perhaps an attitude of lets put things right, sadly it wasn't there as we put in a very lacklustre 45 minutes. Things were so poor that there was only one moment of excitement that being when Jeffers found the back of the net only to be ruled offside on what must have been a marginal decision.

Walter clearly had some work to do at half time. There were no substitutions and there were no blindingly obvious tactical switches, which was right as that hadn't been were the problem lay. What we needed to do was up the pace of the game, to get our passing going and to generally sharpen up our play. We went some way to achieving those aims but nowhere near enough.

During the second half we did enjoy some spells of fairly sustained pressure, we forced some corners, forced some penalty area scrambles but in all honesty we didn't really look like scoring. We had a couple of half decent penalty appeals turned down and Franny managed to lift our best chance of the game over the bar when he attempted to touch Unsworth's strongly driven cross into the net. But really I'm struggling to remember much else in terms of goalmouth action.

Walter eventually decided to change things when he brought Grant on for Barmby with 15 minutes to go. I can only assume that Barmby had some sort of a knock as to my mind he isn't the kind of player you take off unless you need to. Grant did what he could down the right but really he wasn't going to change too much from there, and his appearance there really does highlight our chronic lack of wide midfield players.

From some distance out this match looked to be petering out into a scoreless draw, Villa looked toothless and seemed to lack any real ambition, we just seemed to be unable to string more than a couple of passes together. We then had a moment of madness from Richard Dunne which was horribly reminiscent of last minute events against Chelsea last week, and also the last time Benito Carbone appeared at Goodison for Sheffield Wednesday. Within the last two minutes Dunne was moving back, under no real pressure, to deal with a horrible high, hanging ball. Instead of controlling it and then dealing with the matter he attempted to hit it first time back to Gerrard. Carbone had seen what was coming and anticipated where the ball was going to go, Dunne mis-hit it horribly and the ball went straight to Carbone. The way we keep gifting possession to Carbone like that he must love playing us, he now had the ball and was one-on-one against Gerrard, Gerrard came out but Carbone tried to curl it round him, he succeeded only to see the ball come back off the post. It was an amazing let off.

After that it was a case of lets get out of here with a point. The match soon ran to a completion, the players left the pitch to indifference from the terraces and we left muttering about another two points squandered.

This was undoubtedly our poorest home performance of the season, a day on which too many players seemed to lack sharpness. It's frustrating to watch but at least we are still picking up points and there's certainly no need just yet to start looking nervously over our shoulders, but it would ease my worries if we could put some serious distance between ourselves and the bottom three.

• Gerrard 7 Not called on to do too much but what he did he did competently. To my eyes he is growing in stature as the season continues.
• Dunne 7 A sound capable performance right up until his Carbone moment. It was a shocking mistake and such lapses of concentration are something he has to cut out of his game.
• Unsworth 7 After a slightly shaky start he got better and better. Don't think he put a foot wrong defensively and also got some decent balls into the opposition box.
• Weir 8 Continues his run of impressive form. Defended impeccably, used the ball well when he stepped out of defence with it and also posed an aerial threat in the opposition box. I'm coming to the conclusion that he could be the best defender we've had here since Martin Keown.
• Gough 7 Not quite at his commanding best today but still an OK performance.
• Barmby 7 Typical energy and commitment but with the side not functioning at it's best Barmby was always going to struggle slightly.
• Collins 6 Struggled somewhat today. Tried to make things happen but it just wasn't really happening.
• Hutchison 5 Another below par performance from Don. Don't know whether it's the transfer speculation that is affecting him or what, but it is looking like we need to get his future sorted out soon. Personally I hope he stays as I think he has a lot to offer us.
• Pembridge 6 Not overly impressed with what I've seen so far of Pembridge, has his qualities but can't help thinking we need a better attacking force down the left (not sure where that's actually going to come from, Barmby I suppose but then what do you do down the right?)
• Campbell 6 Just given scraps to feed on today. Did what he could and there was the usual selfless running but was never going to look his best in a display like this.
• Jeffers 6 Had his moments but didn't really look sharp today.
• Grant 6 Not quite sure what the thinking was behind putting him wide right. Still got his touch and awareness and got involved in a few promising moves.

Team 6 Distinctly below par today. Invariably second to the ball and lacking the guile to break downhard working opposition.

Man of the match: David Weir.

The first half was a bit dire to say the least. Jeffers did have the ball in the back of the net. OFFSIDE? I would like to see that on the tv replay...

The second half was a bit brighter. Jeffers brought down. Penalty I think. James did get to the ball, but took out the player afterwards.

The young Jeffers did have the clearest cut chance. Unsworth fired in a shot/cross at 90mph, Jeffers from 6 yards out put the ball over the bar. The front two had a better half but, with no forwards on the bench, Walter has not much option to change things round. If you look at the squad: who is on loan, who is left at Bellefield fit to play? I worry that if Campbell or Jeffers get a knock which puts them out for a few weeks, what the hell are we going to do?

Tony Grant was on the bench, he was not even on the team photo at the start of the season! We play Man Utd next. Let' s just hope that they have a severe bout of jet lag.

• Gerrard 7 played well, worthy of No 1 status
• Gough 8 strong at the back, always talking to the back four
• Dunne 6 what was he thinking of with that back pass?
• Collins 5 did not have any spark today
• Barmby 6 may have been better to have switched flanks to give himself some more space
• Campbell 7 we all look for him to put the ball in the back of the net, not many chances for that today
• Hutchison 5 I have seen him play a lot better
• Pembridge 5 had a quiet game
• Weir 8 the Scottish pairing with centre half Gough, by far our strongest combination
• Unsworth 6 another player who did not have his best performance in a blue shirt today
• Jeffers 6 let's hope that he does not have another off day like today and that during the periods of when there is no game, Walter and Archie get the boxes of cotton wool out to pack him in.

Highlights were few and far between, although Richard Dunne was fantastic for 89 minutes. But it only takes one mistake, and I found myself celebrating a point at the end, rather than bemoaning the loss of two. We almost threw everything away as Dunne casually toed the ball in Gerrard's direction, only for Carbone to latch onto it. Fortunately, with goalie beaten, and nothing but an empty goal ahead, the Italian went for style instead of certainty. He tried to curl it around to the right, and by some miracle, it hit the post. Point saved.

Franny's finish in the first half was exquisite, but unfortunately the linesman had already flagged for offside. That said, everyone apart from the referee had spotted the Gough handball on the edge of the box as Jeffers was set up, and we wouldn't want to be scoring jammy illegal goals now, would we?!

I felt we should have had a penalty in the second half when James brought Jeffers down. Watching Match of the Day, I noticed more inconsistent refereeing. The Watford-Sunderland game saw a penalty appeal less convincing than ours granted. Then St. Michael of the RS was booked for diving for a penalty. Our ref obviously thought Franny was diving too, as he didn't award the penalty, so shouldn't he have booked him? It gets madder every week....

The flying bag was hilarious. The ref stopped to glare at the Villa bench as an embarrassed assistant scrambled the various scattered contents back into the bag. David James' comedy own goal was good - somehow the only ball he managed to drop all game - yes, that's a grudging compliment! He was about to take a goal kick, dropped it, and the ball rolled back into the net.

However, the highlight of the day had to be when the players came out onto the pitch. The mascot usually "helps" a player to warm up, and on Saturday this little lad was helping Paul Gerrard. He was taking shots, which Gerrard was scooping up easily as they slowly bobbled towards him. Until the lad decides to try out something a little different. He lobs him! Gerrard's face was an absolute picture as he turned to pick it out of the net.

We definitely need some good ideas for Utd. away. Otherwise, we will be punished in midfield. Severely.

All these might-have-knowns came together in a set of circumstances that kept me away from the Black Horse before and after the match. Straight in, straight out. It was as much an enema as the match was. A few more of these and it's back to potty training...

So Abel was out and John Collins in. I could see the logic before the game but it grew less appealing by the minute as it went on. Cleland was out, Dunney went to right-back and the Gough-Weir partnership was restored in the centre, while Unsie stuck at left back. I use the pejorative deliberately. Nicky played on the right, Mark Pembridge on the left, with The Don and John in the middle. KC-Big Ears had another game to strike up the Sunshine Band. But......

Play was so staccato, so muddled, almost every comment herefrom has to be counted as strictly relative. Relative to a bowl of steaming poo, that is. Oh yes; it was that bad.

Might have known within the first ten minutes, actually. Alan Wright snuffed Nicky with three terrible tackles the thick ref didn't even finger-wag the little bastard for. So it started badly... and fell away. Doesn't much matter that Wright went on to be man of the match because that's not dissimilar to a medal won at Stalingrad. You'd rather you didn't have to...

Villa had slightly more territory and possession for almost all of the first half. But so did the Texans at the Alamo till the Mexicans got over the walls.

Yes, yes. I KNOW these are cheap analogies. it was that kind of game. Made you think of other things, see below...

Big Ears got one sharpish but had it disallowed in the Park End. Couldn't really see from where I was though it looked pretty close. Nice to see his instinctive sharpness is still there. KC did everything required of him but nobody else was on heat so he mostly wasted his time, including when he got blatantly tripped on the edge of the box in the first half and the ref naturally didn't even cough...

Where DO they get these arseholes from? This was yet another wanker who might be better doing time in an English restaurant somewhere around Runcorn. The sooner we get pro refs the better.

Naturally The Don got booked for a disgraceful kick on young Hendrie's right ankle. Every time he does this sort of crap he diminishes in my eyes. Not just mine either. One lad went flying out of his seat at this and shouted "WHY DON'T YER JUST FUCK OFF HUTCHINSON!!!???" Yes, he got the name as wrong as The Don got his "tackle" wrong. Up to that point Hendrie had done the odd useful thing...which is why he presumably "deserved" to be kicked. Get it right or get off for a reasonable sum, Hutch.

Meanwhile, there was a lot of pushing and shoving, jostling and hassling which was, I think, supposed to represent midfield "play." It was pure crap of course. You could tell what the fans thought of it because there was an endless stream of pasty-buyers and bladder relievers. At least I THINK it was the bladder. It might have been the aesthetic pain they were going through.

Joachim looked reasonably sharp for them and nearly broke through on a couple of occasions. But Goughie and Weir were steadfast for most of the game.

The fact is, we were two almost identical sides. In our case, the hassle and hustle game works well against pat-a-cake teams. But put us against someone who plays the same way and, when you think about it, the result is fairly predictable. Yes, that's right. Aggregate crap. No wonder the midfield was so awful.

Xavier gave way to John Collins because the Jock can tackle rather well and puts it about much better, despite being about half the size. But Collo's passing was woeful in this match. He just kept putting it through the middle to someone who was invariably stuck to a marker... and it came zooming back into a midfield where....ah forget it........

Sadly, Mark Pembridge's modest talents were shown up in this game. Usually the case when everything else is turning sour. Nicky wasn't intimidated by Wright but I think he should have been switched to the left where he might have done more damage.

Dunney had a good game except for This Week's Dunney Howler – more later. Unsie had a marginally less bad game than last week. Which is to say he was only bloody terrible, except for one second half hard cross from the left which should have brought a goal in the Street End. Naturally Big Ears deflected it over. Yes, it was getting more unbearable by the minute.

All in all, it was a bit like watching a kid's game in the park on Sunday. Bodies everywhere, flocked around the ball. You know all it needs is someone with a bit of nouse to do something unusual.....and you've got a winner. The more the game went on, the more I kept watching Carbone warm up on the touchline. "Little twat," I thought, "Sit down, just SIT DOWN!"

John Gregory spent most of the second half out at the dotted line shouting instructions, most of which got ignored. It'd drive me mad. It drove HIM mad... he either kicked or threw a bag of tackle on the pitch when the Villa defence failed three times to clear an easy ball and The Don just clipped one over. I didn't see the actual incident because I was following the ball. By the time I turned, Gregs was back in the dug out, presumably fuming like the rest of us. Well, the Street End weren't gonna let THIS opportunity slip, and...."Sacked in the mornin'....You're gonna be sacked in the MAAAWWWWWNINNNN!" wafted melodiously around the ground. It was the only bit of entertainment we got all afternoon. That and the rednecks' result.

So we were reduced to thinking of other things....The First Law of Thermodynamics... Entropy... James Joyce... What IS the policy difference between that twat Blair and that twat Hague?... Did Bacon really write the Shakespeare plays?

The Street End did it's level best to bate James but he had next to bugger all to do and even that didn't work.

We came out of the reverie just in time to see Gregs send on Carbone. Within two minutes he skinned Unsie on the right and got a cross over, only to find the rest of his team blinking sheepishly at him from the half way line. If I'd been him I'd have gone there and then. We told him to often enough.

Then, the bloody ref's got his whistle in his mouth, and some crappy Villa player hit a hopeful ball down our right. Dunney went back for it and casually side-footed it back to Paul... who'd had absolutely sod all to do all afternoon... except that he naturally took his eye off it at the last second and it hit the top half of his inner left ankle and dropped dead in front of – guess who – pursuing Carbone. He had a clear run in from the left with only Paul to beat. He could have done anything... chipped, lobbed, almost HEADED the bloody ball. Instead, he tried to swerve it into Paul's left side. Mistake. It hit the face of the post and came out and the ref blew his whistle with Carbone laying stretched out on the park and Dunney wearing a relieved kipper.

For a successive week the Street End air was PURPLE.

We had to win this, people. It is now officially Panadol time. Don't empty the bottle though. We'll be needing them all.

After seeing his side stop a run of two successive defeats with a gritty away performance, perhaps Aston Villa's beleaguered manager, John Gregory, was the only person in the ground who might have been tempted to pull a cracker.

He was hardly in the mood to do so, however. Shortly before the end, infuriated by something that his side had done or not done, he booted his physiotherapist's bag on to the field of play, where it spilled open. Given the 28-day touchline ban Gregory begins on Dec 13 for verbally abusing a fourth official, this was not really the way for him to behave.

The match was played against a curious background in that, while Gregory's job was supposedly under threat, his Everton counterpart, Walter Smith, was talking about walking away from Goodison when his contract expires in 18 months' time because of the continuing uncertainty about the ownership of the club. In the meantime, both men fiddled around with their line-ups in the hope of breaking a long run without victory in the Premiership.

Everton, who had not won a League game since they beat neighbours and arch-rivals Liverpool at Anfield two months earlier, restored John Collins and David Weir to the side, Collins after a rest and Weir following suspension, at the expense of Abel Xavier and Alex Cleland. Villa, whose previous win had come against Bradford nine weeks earlier, also made two changes.

Gareth Barry was recalled after suspension to play in a back three and Steve Watson was picked to make a rare appearance as right wing-back. Barry replaced Steve Stone, one of the questionably-expensive signings who have taken Gregory's spending on new players to nearly £35 million during his 21 months in charge. Watson, another of those signings, took over from Mark Delaney, one of the manager's cheaper acquisitions.

In the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that the match was slow to offer any fluent and entertaining football. When Nick Barmby and Mark Pembridge did string a couple of passes together, it enabled Francis Jeffers to test the Villa goalkeeper, David James, with a shot of only moderate strength.

With Everton doing most of the early pressing, Jeffers was also unfortunate to be caught fractionally offside as he drove Don Hutchison's pass across James and into the far corner of the net.

For Villa, it was largely a question of seeing what they could get from counter attacks, and it proved to be very little.

Colin Calderwood had a shot charged down by his fellow Scottish international, Weir, in the scrimmage that followed Alan Wright's short corner from the right and some clever work by Dion Dublin nearly set Julian Joachim up for a scoring header until David Unsworth's head intervened just in time. But there was not much else by way of a scoring threat from the visitors in the first half.

Equally, there was no denying that by the interval Villa had drawn Everton's sting and were beginning to dominate proceedings. And if George Boateng's cross from the left, after he been sent running clear by the influential and hard-working Dublin, had been more accurate, they might well have gone in at half-time with a lead. As it was, neither Joachim nor anyone else was able to get a touch as the ball flew across the face of the Everton goal.

Thankfully, the second half brought some relief from the tedium of the first 45 minutes. Within six minutes of the restart, Dublin had driven Joachim's pull-back a couple of feet wide of the far post and Everton had been refused a penalty. It looked a good claim, James appearing to bring Jeffers down as the young striker chased the ball diagonally across the penalty area. However, the referee, Peter Jones, thought otherwise and awarded Villa a goal-kick, much to the disgust of the home support.

As if eager to gain some consolation for that disappointment, Jeffers nearly scored twice in the following 14 minutes. First, he tried to control Unsworth's driven centre and succeeded only in deflecting it over the bar from close range. Then, found in space to the left of goal by Richard Dunne's raking pass, he forced James to palm away his sudden shot.

The best of the excitement was crammed into the last couple of minutes. Villa looked certain to snatch victory when a mistake by Dunne allowed Benito Carbone a clear run at goal on the left. But Carbone, who had been brought on by Gregory for Joachim to renewed chants of "You don't know what you're doing!" by the Villa fans, threw himself to the ground in despair after rolling the ball past Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard and against the foot of the far post.

Such slapdash finishing denied Villa a first win in eight games and did little for their boss's tenuous job security. A first clean sheet in six Premiership matches probably ensured that he will not be sacked this week but evidence that Gregory is presently engulfed by tension had earlier been manifested when he ill-temperedly hurled a holdall on to the pitch – its contents spilling higgledy-piggledy across the turf – as his defence permitted Don Hutchison a shooting chance. "I'll probably be reported for the incident with the bag," later, ruefully, admitted a man who begins a 28-day touchline ban, imposed for abusing officials, on December 13.

Blaming referees and their assistants for defeats invariably masks deeper ills. Indeed it was perhaps significant that Carbone proved one of three high-profile, jaw-droppingly well remunerated, Gregory signings – the others being ex-internationals Paul Merson and Steve Stone – who began on the bench, thereby prompting awkward questions about the manager's transfer-market acumen.

Villa might be doing rather better if David Unsworth still wore claret and blue. Everton's left-back – who enjoyed the briefest of spells in Birmingham during the summer of 1998 – defended admirably here, even if some of his distribution was found wanting.

Unusually Unsworth – who Kevin Keegan could do worse than contemplate selecting – was one of 21 British players in the starting line-ups, George Boateng being the sole foreigner. Unfortunately for those anxious to reverse the flood of overseas players presently overwhelming the Premiership, the opening 45 minutes largely provided a shocking advert for indigenous virtues and lacked a single decent passing sequence.

Goalmouth action? Well, Francis Jeffers had the ball in the back of the net but the Everton striker was so blatantly offside his teammates did not even bother contesting the referee's decision. At the other end, Paul Gerrard made a solitary save from Dion Dublin's long effort.

Admittedly the second half began with Dublin shooting fractionally wide of the far post with Gerrard looking beaten, but, all in all, there was plenty to provoke Gregory into anxiously pacing the outer perimeter of the technical area.

He had reason for relief when David James appeared to fell Jeffers in the area but, despite clamorous Evertonian penalty appeals, the referee adjudged the forward to have contrived the situation by running straight into the goalkeeper.

On a day much more about destruction than construction, Villa's Gareths – Southgate and Barry – deserved credit for keeping Jeffers and Kevin Campbell well suppressed while Richard Gough belied his advancing years by coping admirably with Julian Joachim's daunting pace.

In truth Joachim was rarely permitted to properly accelerate and, even when he did, Everton's defence tended to shepherd him safely wide. It was thus no surprise when Gregory replaced him with Carbone.

"We should have won – I couldn't believe Carbone missed that. Our season just seems to be unfolding," groaned Villa's manager afterwards. "But I was delighted with our overall performance. We maybe lack a bit of self- belief but everyone rolled their sleeves up and got on with it. Contrary to all the rubbish being talked, we have a good dressing-room spirit. I'm particularly pleased with the back three – they were exceptional against Everton's attacking pace, particularly Barry."

Although Jeffers might have scored from a couple of second-half chances, Everton were less than inspiring and it was not hard to see why this was their seventh successive Premiership match without a win.

Part of the problem seemed to be that Nick Barmby was disappointingly deployed out of position wide on the right. Even so he still supplied many of the afternoon's superior touches and consistently ran intelligently off the ball. The mystery was why, late on and much to the chagrin of Goodison Park season-ticket holders, Walter Smith, Everton's manager, withdrew Barmby when the under-achieving Mark Pembridge on the left was a more deserving candidate for replacement.

A victim of his ability to play in several positions, Barmby is really best deployed on the left – and could yet do a job there for England during Euro 2000 next June. It would certainly be intriguing to see what odds might be offered on Barmby summering in the Low Countries. Or, indeed, on Gregory still being Villa's manager seven months hence.

How times change. Everton may be unbeaten now in eight home Premiership games, but they have not won at Goodison since 19 September or anywhere since their famous triumph at Anfield at the end of the same month. That win took them to sixth, but this result yesterday served only to confirm it was a false dawn.

On an afternoon of scrambling mediocrity, it was John Gregory's visiting Aston Villa who looked the more likely to secure a victory made out of little more than effort and industry as he attempted to stop the rot which has plunged his club into a minor crisis and brought calls for him to lose his job as manager. On New Year's Day, don't forget, Villa were Premiership leaders.

Given his tendency for abusing the nearest official, it was a surprise to see Gregory taking immediate advantage of the technical box, from which he will be banned for 28 days starting on 13 December. He was busy whistling, gesticulating and shouting at regular intervals throughout the first half but none of his efforts succeeded in raising either his team or Everton to levels which could stimulate the senses.

Without a win in their last seven Premiership outings, and beaten at Coventry last Monday, Villa were in dire need of a result. But Everton, struggling as badly to put their game together, were in no mood to offer any charity in a first half riddled with misplaced passes and barely a worthwhile shot on target.

The only notable event came after 16 minutes when Don Hutchison was cautioned for a late tackle on Lee Hendrie. It appeared to be a challenge made out of frustration.

There were, remarkably, 21 British players on the pitch at the start, and worryingly the match fell into a sleepy and rhythmless shambles as both teams attempted too many ambitious long balls. Hutchison's midfield partner and Scotland team-mate John Collins was the one notable exception, but he saw too little of the ball in the hurly-burly as so much of the play passed over his head or whistled around his shoulders.

Even Walter Smith was prompted to jump from the dug-out and give vent to his feelings. Having threatened before the match to quit Everton if majority shareholder Peter Johnson did not soon sell his holding and move on, the question was when Smith might decide to throw in the towel. Everton's dismal first-half display prompted thoughts that he may leave at any moment.

The lively Francis Jeffers provided some movement alongside Kevin Campbell at the focal point of Everton's attack but, like Collins, also received few accurate balls to feet. He did, however, fire in one shot after five minutes which rifled into David James' midriff, and saw another after 12 minutes beat the goalkeeper only to be ruled out for offside. Alas, they were all Everton had to show in attack in the opening period.

Given the pressures on Gregory's future, it was no surprise to see Villa lift the tempo of their game after a tongue-lashing at the interval. Almost immediately Julian Joachim escaped on the right and, from his reverse pass, Dublin fired a first-time shot narrowly wide. Everton, too, looked more in the mood at this stage, with Jeffers unlucky not to earn them a penalty after 51 minutes when he appeared to be brought down by James in the area.

Spurred on by the directions and vocal chords of Richard Gough, a remarkably sprightly 39, Everton pressed forward to take the initiative for a short spell during which they almost snatched the lead. A close-range shot by Campbell was charged down by James and on the rebound David Unsworth hit a cross-shot which ricocheted off Jeffers and arced over the bar.

Soon afterwards Steve Watson followed Ian Taylor into the referee's notebook as the challenges became increasingly scrappy, and Gregory boldly responded to the needs of the moment by sending on Benito Carbone as a substitute.

The little Italian added some much-needed vim and almost snatched the winner when he latched on to a misplaced pass-back by Richard Dunne and then guided a low shot from 20 yards against the foot of a post. A few inches to the left and Gregory's day would have been made and, perhaps, his scalp saved for the time being.

Someone remarked that the Italian had looked distraught. "He should be," Gregory said. That brisk candour gives him charm. Emotions, as well as opinions, are expressed freely and he had booted a kitbag on to the pitch when George Boateng missed an easy clearance and put Villa in trouble late in the match. Kick-starting the team is harder to achieve.

Villa are just two points behind Everton, a club deemed to be enjoying a plucky season, in the FA Carling Premiership but more exacting targets are set for a squad that Gregory has gathered at such expense. In a stultifying contest, supporters did recover consciousness long enough to shout for penalties in the second half when, in separate incidents, Francis Jeffers and Kevin Campbell went down. On each occasion, David James, the Villa goalkeeper, had reached the ball before the collision with the man. It was only while defending, however, that Villa made such fine calculations. In attack, they were merely guessing at the answers.

Gregory was reduced to praising Dion Dublin for closing down opponents. Julian Joachim, also, was tireless in pursuit, but never in command. To observe authority, eyes had to flick to the other end of the pitch, where Villa had reverted to the system of three centre backs.

While Colin Calderwood and Gareth Southgate impressed, Gareth Barry, returning to the side, was the key to the stringency.

Everton's main, and virtually sole, ploy was the flick from the head of Campbell towards the feet of Jeffers. Five minutes into the second half, the teenager appeared to have been put through but Barry, lunging from behind, executed a clean interception. Entertainment was confined to the sight of excitement being stifled expertly, although Jeffers, immediately after the second penalty appeal, did brush a cutback from David Unsworth over the bar.

Everton's concerns lack the prominence of Villa's, but the unbeaten record at Goodison Park that Walter Smith's team hold contains its own cause for disquiet. Five of the eight matches have been drawn. At least Smith can take comfort in the soundness of his team and await afternoons when the sprightliness of Don Hutchison returns.

Villa's sequence without a win extends to eight matches in the Premiership. Gregory was dismissive of "statistics", as if they were recorded only by trainspotters in peculiarly neat notebooks. Chairmen, alarmingly, also keep an eye on them. It is statistics that usher a team into European competition, statistics that drag it off to the relegation zone, statistics that cost a man his job.

Villa need victories and, over three competitions, have their next four matches at home, with Southampton arriving on Wednesday. Gregory is one of the few managers in England to sound eager for a Worthington Cup tie.

Follow this link to our new Results and Statistics page