Aston Villa and West Ham United did themselves no favours in the battle for a UEFA Cup spot as they fought out an uninspiring, goalless draw at Villa Park last night.

The fifth and sixth-placed teams in the Premiership had already suffered a massive blow in midweek with the news that they would have to overtake Leeds in fourth spot to qualify for Europe.

One point did neither of them much good in the already-tall order to overhaul David O'Leary's side who are still seven points ahead of West Ham and nine in front of Villa - and with a match in hand.

And to make matters wore for West Ham, they lost England defender Rio Ferdinand after eight minutes with damaged ankle ligaments after he was tackled by Mark Draper, who clearly merited his yellow card. Villa had only themselves to blame for not putting an end to their dreadful sequence of results after dominating territorially for lengthy periods.

The confidence slowly but surely began to creep back into their play, and over the 90 minutes, they had the better of the few clear-cut chances on a night of precious little goalmouth action.

Striker Dion Dublin had his most effective game for several weeks despite the continued handicap of a hernia problem.

He used the ball intelligently and was a threat in the air, while Lady Luck was against him and Villa when his first-half header hit the post.

The other major plus for Villa was achieving a rare clean sheet after conceding 17 goals in their previous eight games with Colin Calderwood quietly effective on his debut.

West Ham showed they are no longer the soft touch they were once thought to be on their travels as they took their points tally to 14 from the last seven games to stay in fifth place ahead of Villa.

Villa dominated the opening 45 minutes territorially, and Steve Lomas cleared a half-hit shot from Gareth Southgate following an Alan Thompson corner.

But the first save of any note did not occur until the 23rd minute when West Ham's goalkeeper Shaka Hislop held onto a curling effort from Dublin away to his left.

Villa finally started to show some confidence, and in the 40th minute, the woodwork denied Dublin his first goal in open play of 1999. West Ham made hardly any impression as an attacking force in the opening 45 minutes, and although Paolo di Canio had the ball in the net in injury time, he was clearly offside.

The visitors showed more purpose at the start of the second half, and Draper brought down Lomas in a dangerous position on the edge of the area, but Frank Lampard's free-kick was deflected straight at Mark Bosnich.

ASTON VILLA: Bosnich, Watson, Calderwood, Southgate, Wright, Stone, Draper, Taylor, Thompson (Merson 86), Dublin, Joachim. Subs Not Used: Barry, Scimeca, Samuel, Oakes. Booked: Draper.

WEST HAM: Hislop, Pearce, Ferdinand (Potts 8), Ruddock, Minto, Lampard, Lomas, Foe, Sinclair, Kitson, Di Canio. Subs Not Used: Keller, Moncur, Berkovic, Forrest. Booked: Sinclair.

Referee: G Willard (Worthing).