English FA Premiership/ Wigan Athletic 0 Aston Villa 0: It says much for Martin O'Neill's organisational and motivational skills that a bunch of players as collectively limited as this Aston Villa side might have gone into third place in the Premiership had they defeated Wigan Athletic yesterday lunchtime.

This was always going to be a tight match, although after Thomas Sorensen saved from Lee McCulloch's header inside the first minute the statistical inevitability of a goalless conclusion pressed down like a suffocating pillow.

Paul Jewell's team, on the back of four successive victories and seven goals in their previous two home matches, will feel they should have won, given their greater amount of possession, notably in the first half, although they might have had a point snatched away from them in the last 20 minutes or so when Gabriel Agbonlahor almost found a way through, and it took an excellent tackle by the Australian Josip Skoko to halt him.

McCulloch should have scored from Henri Camara's excellent ball from the right, although Sorensen did well to get his body in the way. And he made an even better save in the second half from Paul Scharner.

By half-time the match was becoming ragged, epitomised when Camara attempted an overhead kick and skewed the ball away at 90 degrees. He beat both fists into the turf in frustration, and was barely noticed thereafter. "He can be bothersome," said O'Neill, with delicious understatement, having managed the Senegal striker at Celtic.

Wigan had two good chances early in the second half, the first when Isaiah Osbourne dived in an attempt to clear Emmerson Boyce's cross and guided the ball against a post. Then came Sorensen's save from Scharner.

Villa increasingly relied on the quick counter and might have tilted the game in their favour had Gareth Barry rolled the ball inside to Juan Pablo Angel rather than shoot himself.

• Guardian Service