MIDDLESBROUGH'S 1996 nightmare continued last night when they failed to force a win over an Aston Villa side who might have been introduced to each other in the dressing-room.
Injury and suspension meant that manager Brian Little was without eight first-team players in Villa's final match before Sunday's League Cup final, with three of his youngsters making their FA Premiership debuts.
But Bryan Robson's side showed exactly why they had scored just six goals and picked up a mere two points in their 12 league games since Christmas as they never really looked like breaking through.
It was a match to forget for Villa Park's lowest league crowd of the season - 23,933. The game was stifled by the home side's understandable pre-Wembley caution and inexperience and Middlesbrough's frantic desperation and dreadful form.
Villa's only bonus was no further injury problems before their big date. But Middlesbrough's problems intensified with their Brazilians, Juninho and Branco, giving way before the start of the awful second half the game destined for a boring draw long before the end.
With the suspended Savo Milosevic and Ugo Ehiogu sidelined along with Gareth Southgate, Gary Charles, Tommy Johnson, Ian Taylor, Riccardo Scimeca and Franz Carr, the unchanged visitors should have seized the initiative.
Instead Villa took charge with a line-up that had defenders Scott Murray and Paul Browne and midfielder Lee Hendrie making full debuts.
Gary Walsh plucked a Steve Staunton cross off Dwight Yorke's head, held a glancing header from Andy Townsend and then flew to his right to deny Julian Joachim after the England under-21 men had linked with Yorke.
Middlesbrough's cause was hardly helped when Juninho went down holding his left knee after a 17th-minute clash with Mark Draper and despite a short-lived attempt to run it off, he made way for Craig Hignett.
Fortunately for the Teessiders, Villa had lost their way after that early thrust, but Branco's renowned dead-ball delivery held real threat, with Mark Bosnich twice the Villa hero.
Hignett was the first denied, followed by former Villa man Neil Cox, and then when Jamie Pollock, fed by Robbie Mustoe, did slide home, the flag was up.
Referee Paul Alcock checked with his colleague before ruling the strike out, leaving the field at the break surrounded by a phalanx of red shirts, although when the teams re-emerged Branco was not among them, Graham Kavanagh coming on.
Middlesbrough's Hendrie shot weakly when fed through the middle by Pollock in the 56th minute, but with the Villa youngsters' legs unsurprisingly tiring, the area in front of Bosnich was full of bodies, although he was rarely worried.
When Hignett, 14 yards out, snatched at a shot so badly that it screwed away for a Villa throw 15 yards along the touchline the game was summed up,
