Stoke 0-0 Aston Villa: The Sunday Mirror match report

Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa became the latest to fall short of what has become the top four’s acid test – ordeal by Delap.

So far this season Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United have underlined their Champions League status by heading out an afternoon’s long throws from Rory Delap and then ­pinching all three points to take back home.

Winning in the noisy, hostile atmosphere of the windswept Britannia Stadium underlines that you can cut it at both aspects of the game.

You can stand tall and cope with the ferocious barrage of throws and corners. And you can conjure up a few bits of football to score some goals of your own.

And while the big three have all done it, Villa became the third of the pretenders to go home with only a point after Liverpool and Manchester City also failed to win there.

That leaves only Tottenham to make the trip next week to show whether they deserve to keep their current hold on the final Champions League place.

O’Neill was happy to take the positives of a scrappy game that at least protected his team’s unbeaten record in the Premier League in 2010.

He said: “We showed a lot of bravery, players were prepared to put their bodies on the line and that was epitomised by three or four different defenders on different occasions.

“Overall when you have not conceded from one of those Delap throws you can say it has been a satisfactory afternoon.

“Stoke is a tough place to come. I think everybody knows what to expect, but knowing and coping are two different things.

“Now we’ve got a game at Wigan on Tuesday and we have got to try to win there.”

The truth is that Villa have improved since last season - but not enough.

Last year they lost to an injury-time goal when they failed to deal with the 16th and last long throw that was hurled into their box.

Yesterday they held their nerve and discipline impressively to cope with= 19 of them, and goalkeeper Brad Friedel got through 90 minutes without ever having to make a difficult save.

But the trouble was that at the other end Stoke’s Thomas Sorensen enjoyed just as undemanding an afternoon.

For all the occasional bits of football Villa produced the nearest they came to scoring was when Richard Dunne squared the ball across the six yard box with an hour gone but Emile Heskey could not get on the end of it.

Then in the second half Stewart Downing’s shot inadvertently deflected off team-mate John Carew but hit the side-netting with Sorensen wrong-footed.

For much of the first half they were reduced to fighting fire with fire, getting Carlos Cuellar to launch long throws towards John Carew.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis said: “We have had a very demanding period and we knew that to play a quality side like Villa at the end of a three-game week would be difficult. But I thought in the last 30 minutes we were the stronger team.”

That was because Pulis made a double substitution soon after the second half started, sending on Ricardo Fuller and Dave Kitson, and between them they brought Matthew Etherington more into the game.

But when they did finally engineer a proper chance they found Dunne proving Villa’s spirit with a brave block to deny Etherington.

Robert Huth could have snatched a win in the final minute but headed Etherington’s corner over.

Turkish striker Tuncay threw a tantrum at being asked to make way for Fuller, but Pulis said: “As far as I’m concerned the only thing that matters is what is right for the team.

“As a young manager I wasn’t afraid to change senior players if I thought it was necessary and I’ve never changed. The team comes first.

“That attitude among the players has helped us to make this a very intimidating place to come to.

“If we can keep the club in the Premier League for three seasons that will give us the grounding to push on.”