Aston Villa 1 Middlesbrough 1: Malcolm Christie scored his first goal for 21 months to give Gareth Southgate's Middlesbrough a point against his former club at Villa Park.
Christie has been dogged by injury problems since arriving at the Riverside Stadium from Derby four years ago. This was only his 14th start for the Teessiders but there was elation for the striker who had last found the net against Portsmouth at Fratton Park in February 2005.
He may have been marginally offside but few would begrudge him that slice of good fortune and in any case it needed a harsh-looking penalty - converted by Villa skipper Gareth Barry — to deny Boro their first away win of the campaign.
The visitors had the man of the match in former Villa player George Boateng who bossed the centre of the park and won possession on countless occasions.
They also limited under-performing Villa to only a handful of opportunities and, when the home side did break through, they found Mark Schwarzer in impressive form.
Villa struggled to move out of second gear and their biggest threat came from overlapping full-back Olof Mellberg and the ever-consistent Barry on the left flank.
Villa boss Martin O'Neill employed Juan Pablo Angel as the only central striker as he reverted to the 4-5-1 system which had been so successful at the start of the season in the absence of the injured Chris Sutton.
But there was precious little excitement for the majority of the opening 45 minutes.
Barry curled a 20-yard drive just past the post and a cross from Mellberg was turned back across goal by Angel to Isaiah Osbourne whose header was saved by Schwarzer.
There was a rare opportunity for Boro when a centre from Andrew Taylor picked out Aiyegbeni Yakubu's run and he sent a glancing header wide.
Villa were soon back on the offensive and Schwarzer was forced to turn a 35-yard piledriver from full-back Wilfred Bouma around the post and Gary Cahill flicked a cross from Barry across the face of goal.
Barry picked up his fourth yellow card of the season after 39 minutes for fouling Abel Xavier. Schwarzer produced a brave save to deny Barry at point-blank range from Gabriel Agbonlahor's cross before Boro went ahead a minute before the interval through Christie.
Julio Arca had a shot blocked but Yakubu stuck a leg out and deflected the ball into the path of Christie, who looked a yard offside before he fired past Thomas Sorensen.
But in injury time Villa drew level through a Barry penalty — the eighth awarded to O'Neill's side this season — after Stiliyan Petrov was harshly adjudged to have been brought down by Schwarzer.
Petrov had the ball in the net for Villa early in the second period but it was ruled out for a foul by Angel on Schwarzer.
Striker Milan Baros replaced Angel while Steven Davis came on in midfield for Osbourne.
Baros had an early chance to make an impact after taking a pass from Barry in his stride but he was crowded out by the Boro defence.
The home side, unbeaten at Villa Park this season, started to build up some momentum and Mellberg came within inches of putting them in front.
Sorensen looked increasingly groggy after an Emanuel Pogatetz challenge and was clearly limping. He was replaced by Stuart Taylor after 70 minutes.
Arca cleared off the line from Schwarzer's mis-timed punch from a Barry corner and Lee Cattermole headed wide with the goal at his mercy from James Morrison's free-kick.
