Aston Villa 0 Liverpool 0: Lacklustre chess game is cold comfort to O'Neill and Benitez

The date on the programme said that it was mid-March and the weather made it feel more like midwinter, but this Premiership encounter at Villa Park yesterday had all the passion of an end-of-term non-event in May or a pre-season friendly in August.

Although there is still more than a fifth of the season to go, both teams played as if they know their fate already. Liverpool's Champions League place hardly looks under threat, while Aston Villa's Premiership future seems secure, even though Charlton's victory over Newcastle United yesterday cut their margin of safety above the relegation zone to seven points.

If the sell-out crowd had come hoping to warm their hands on a day when rain, hail and even snow interruptedspells of bright sunshine, their silence told its own story. Villa set the tone with a cautious formation, Ashley Young dropping back into midfield to leave John Carew on his own up front, and Liverpool hardly appeared in the mood to go on the front foot.

Young did his best work - which was not saying much - away from the danger areas and Carew got little change out of the excellent Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger. While Gabriel Agbonlahor made the occasional break down the right and Gareth Barry tried to get things going from midfield, Martin O'Neill's team rarely got enough players into the Liverpool penalty area.

Villa appealed for a penalty when Stiliyan Petrov went down under Steve Finnan's challenge just before half-time, but although television replays showed there had been contact the Bulgarian appeared to have made a meal of it. Agbonlahor might have made more of a couple of openings in the first half and Patrik Berger failed to hit the target with two late half-chances, but that was the sum total of Villa's threat.

Liverpool made even less impact. Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy never got going, Javier Mascherano was the best of a pedestrian midfield and it took until the 90th minute for Rafa Benitez's men to trouble Thomas Sorensen. Jermaine Pennant crossed from the right and the Villa goalkeeper had to move smartly to keep out Robbie Fowler's near-post header.

O'Neill admitted that his team had not played well - "It turned out to be more of a chess game than a highly entertaining match," he said - while Benitez agreed that "it wasn't a good game". You can say that again.

Aston Villa (4-5-1): Sorensen; Bardsley, Mellberg, Cahill, Bouma; Agbonlahor, McCann, Petrov, Barry, Young (Berger, 76); Carew. Substitutes not used: Taylor (gk), Angel, Hughes, Maloney.

Liverpool (4-4-2): Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Riise; Gerrard (Fowler, 83), Mascherano, Sissoko (Alonso, 59), Aurelio; Bellamy (Pennant, 72), Kuyt. Substitutes not used: Dudek (gk), Hyypia.

Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).

Booked: Aston Villa Petrov, Carew; Liverpool: Mascherano, Bellamy, Pennant.

Man of the match: Agger.

Attendance: 42,551.