Aston Villa 0 Sunderland 0 match report: Royalty watches Antonio Giaccherini’s open-goal miss

Prince William’s first trip to Villa Park is unlikely to linger in the memory. What the prince, second in line to the throne, saw was a goalless draw in which his favourite team were arguably fortunate to take a point against Sunderland, the side with the worst defensive record in the Premier League. As Paul Lambert, the Aston Villa manager, said afterwards: “I don’t think he’ll watch Match Of The Day.”

It is highly unlikely the future monarch joined in the boos at the final whistle though at least Villa were spared the defeat Sunderland would have inflicted on them had Antonio Giaccherini not missed an open goal at the end of the first half. There was another near miss when Fabio Borini headed against the crossbar in the second period but for the visitors, their second away point of the campaign was still enough to lift them off the bottom of the table above Crystal Palace, and leave manager Gus Poyet in a perky mood.

“He is not happy with me?” He deadpanned when asked about Prince William’s presence before highlighting the positives. “We made it difficult for Villa,” Poyet said. “We were brave on the ball, we tried to go the other way, we created two or three very good chances. For a team down at the bottom, I don’t think it’s too bad.”

It was not bad at all given what had gone before for a Sunderland side with just one away point in the league before yesterday. Sunderland’s wretched away form was reflected by the empty sky blue seats in the away section of the Doug Ellis Stand but those who did make the trip to a venue where their team crashed 6-1 in April were rewarded by a step in the right direction – embodied by a commanding performance by Wes Brown, playing here after his red card against Stoke last weekend was annulled. He as much as anybody helped the Wearsiders earn a first away clean sheet since April. “I am the lucky one, I got to the club at the right time when he got fit and now I need to keep him fit,” said Poyet.

Although Villa started the game brightly with Agbonlahor putting a far-post header wide in the third minute, Sunderland soon established a foothold in the game and began stretching the home defence. Sebastian Larsson curled a free-kick just wide of the far post from the left side of the box then John O’Shea had a penalty shout ignored, probably correctly, after his header came off the hand of Ciaran Clark. Then, two minutes before half-time, came the miss that will have haunted Giaccherini’s dreams last night. Phil Bardsley headed a far-post Ki Sung-Yueng ball back across goal and with the goal at his mercy the Italy winger somehow hooked it over the crossbar. “He doesn’t stop saying sorry, said Poyet, who also played down a reported confrontation between Bardsley and full-back Andrea Dossena in the warm-up. “A little bit of tension in the team is nice especially when you are down near the bottom.”

Villa have become a more resilient side this season – as showed by their comeback against West Brom on Monday – but they were short on creativity yesterday and Christian Benteke (below) continues to struggle for form after his return from injury. He has now gone seven games without a goal.

Instead it was left to the busy Gabriel Agbonlahor to carry the fight. Early in the second half he surged into the box from the right and had a near-post shot beaten away by Vito Mannone, but that was about as good as it got for the home side who breathed a big sigh of relief when Giaccherini swung over a cross from the left side and Fabio Borini sent a header flying against the crossbar. “We might have lost it last year,” said Lambert, whose Villa side are now unbeaten in four. “It’s another clean sheet, another point, another game unbeaten.” Not exactly fit for a future king, though.

Line-ups:

Aston Villa (formation 4-3-3): Guzan; Bacuna, Vlaar, Clark, Luna; El Ahmadi (Tonev 71), Westwood, Delph; Weimann (Albrighton 71), Benteke (Kozak 86), Agbonlahor.

Everton (formation 4-1-4-1): Mannone; Bardsley, O’Shea, Brown, Dossena (Celustka 84); Ki; Giaccherini, Larsson, Gardner (Colback 76), Borini (Johnson 76); Fletcher.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick.

Man of the match: Wes Brown (Sunderland).

Match rating: 5/10.