O'Leary now the real villain

FA Premiership/ Aston Villa 0 Fulham 0: Chris Coleman, desperate to change a routine that has failed to produce an away win in the league this season, encouraged his Fulham players to go out to the cinema together on Friday afternoon. It can be only a matter of time before Aston Villa fans do the same at 3pm on Saturdays. Ian Taylor, a former Villa player, suggested as much when he remarked, "I don't know what makes 30,000 people turn up."

It cannot be the prospect of seeing a team befitting a club of Villa's stature. This was another dreadful home performance to add to many others Villa fans have had to endure this season. Only Portsmouth and Sunderland, both anchored in the relegation zone, have won fewer matches and scored fewer goals in front of their supporters. It is a record that Villa fans need no reminding of judging by the banners unfurled on Saturday.

"We're not fickle, we just don't like you," proclaimed one.

Not long ago, Doug Ellis might have shuffled in his seat at the sight of such a message, but the Villa chairman is no longer the target for the fans' vitriol. There is a new villain in town and his name is David O'Leary. Last week fans chanted for the Dubliner to be dismissed; on Saturday they put it in writing. "O'Leary Out" read another banner.

After his three years in charge, Villa fans expect tangible signs of progress, but they would be have been pushed to find any in a side that occupies 16th place in the Premiership and struggles to overcome Fulham. Coleman's side had lost their last eight league games on the road, meaning that Saturday was their first away point since early December. It would have been a maximum haul had Steed Malbranque put a volley from 12 yards on target.

Not that a draw was enough to prevent the boos at the final whistle. O'Leary's response was to continue a charm offensive that included stopping to sign autographs. The recipients, a couple of youngsters, smiled in appreciation. Elsewhere there were very different expressions as Villa's long-suffering supporters scowled in indignation at another listless display.

O'Leary dismisses their expectations as unrealistic and, while that may be true of those who aspire to playing European football, there is no reason for Villa to be teetering above the relegation zone. Some £12 million was spent last summer, not enough to challenge those hell-bent on Champions League qualification but sufficient to compete with Wigan, Bolton and Blackburn. All have left Villa trailing.

Only a flourishing youth policy - eight of the 16 players in Villa's squad on Saturday had come through the ranks - offers hope. Ellis enjoys nothing more than to see the likes of Luke Moore and Steven Davis, graduates from Villa's academy, among the starting XI, though that alone will not mollify the chairman. He must have been aghast at the inertia here, the players' lack of conviction adding fuel to rumours of dressing-room unrest.

Another kind of turbulence concerns O'Leary, namely talk of a takeover that has gone quiet since the Comer brothers were touted as potential investors in October. The manager said the uncertainty makes it difficult to plan.

Apart from a 10-second spell that saw Gavin McCann make a hash of three chances, and a later Lee Hendrie volley, Villa were impotent. They, like Fulham, could not even manage a booking.

Hendrie recoiled at a questions about the criticism of O'Leary. "I'd rather not answer that," he replied. "He doesn't seem any different from day one."

Nor does the stagnant club he took over.