Some newspapers had this down as a lucky point for West Ham but I'm not sure why. True Villa went ahead as early as the 11th minute while West Ham's equaliser came in the 85th and Villa did have several chances to stretch their lead in the first half and the Hammers would surely have had trouble recovering from that.

But a quick look at the match statistics will show that the Hammer's forced as many corners as Villa and had the main percentage of the possession and, once Saviola and Sears were introduced in the 74th and 81st minutes respectively, the Hammers constantly stretched the home side's rearguard to the extent that it looked like any third goal would come from the visitors.

Martin O'Neill made much of the penalty claim, when the ball was handled by James Tomkins in the last minute but, while it looked clear as day on MOTD, it was not as obvious in the ground and certainly not clear to match ref Rob Styles; cliché though it is, it just proves that these things 'even themselves up' when you consider the blatant shout denied the Hammers against Bolton.

In fact, the best save of the match came late on when Brad Friedel had to be at his best to tip over a Mark Noble shot shortly after Diego Tristan had opened his account for the Hammers, cleverly diverting a Kieron Dyer shot that was going wide.

Another good away point then for West Ham as the race for seventh place and a Euro League place hots up.