Villa of O'Neill has real spine

Aston Villa - 1 Tottenham - 1: As well as restoring Aston Villa's will to win, Martin O'Neill has re-established a determination not to lose, and it was this that enabled them to survive against a better Tottenham team on Saturday. The draw may have meant O'Neill's side lost their perfect home record, but, courtesy of Middlesbrough's win against Everton, they are now the only Premiership team unbeaten.

For this state of affairs Juan Pablo Angel, Villa's Colombian striker, took little credit. Not only did he miss a penalty a quarter of an hour from the end, he headed a dim own-goal less than two minutes later.

Last season David O'Leary's Villa team would probably have fainted away in similar circumstances, but under O'Neill a lack of spine has been replaced by a set of vertebrae.

"We could have packed it in after falling behind but we kept going," O'Neill said.

True enough, and none kept going better than Gareth Barry, the Villa captain. With nine minutes remaining Barry gathered a long pass from Stilian Petrov and moved inside past two defenders before beating Paul Robinson with a wonderful shot into the top far corner.

Yet Tottenham dominated the first half and were having the better of the second, even after Calum Davenport's harsh dismissal in the wake of the incident that produced the penalty.

Two fouls on Zokora led to free-kicks from Danny Murphy, each of which was flicked on to create scoring opportunities. Michael Dawson headed the first against a post and Hossam Ghaly met the second with a volley kept out by Stuart Taylor.

Neither Spurs centre-back finished the game. A dazed Dawson was forced off early in the second half and Davenport was adjudged by Martin Atkinson to have brought down Gabriel Agbonlahor when it looked more a matter of the Villa player losing his footing as he was about to shoot.

Angel's penalty, wafted high and wide, alleviated Tottenham's sense of injustice, and when the Colombian met a corner from Jermain Defoe by heading in at his near post, Spurs must have felt they had been awarded costs as well.

Guardian Service