Aston Villa were unable to break Portsmouth and had to be satisfied with just one point when the two sides met in a Premier League encounter last Saturday at the Villa Park.

Both sides have broken into the top half of the table after some indifferent games at the start of the season. A win here would have given then the ideal fillip to break into the top five, but that was not to be. Martin O'Neill's side was tepid and although Gareth Barry and Stiliyan Petrov mounted several raids into the Pompey penalty area, they were unable to break the resolute defense.

James Milner and Carlos Cuellar were handed their first starts since their move to Villa Park by manager Martin O'Neill. Luke Young and Nicky Shorey did not find any place in the starting eleven. Action started just six minutes into the game when Glen Little headed towards the Villa goal. Martin Laursen headed the ball away, but it fell to Sean Davis whose goal-bound shot was smartly saved by Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

John Carew then had a couple of chances; the first of which he skewed wide. The second chance was cleared by Glen Johnson. Curtis Davies then had a chance to put Villa ahead on 17 minutes, but was unable to direct his close range shot.

Armand Traore almost put Pompey ahead, but his clinical shot crashed into the upright. Defoe was guilty of missing a chance as the ball fell to him after Davies failed to clear it. After the break, both sides went on the attack only to find that their defenses were unbreakable.

Portsmouth midfielder Sean Davis was sent off on 80 minutes for two bookable offences. However 10-man Pompey held out and secured a hard fought draw.