Familiar frailties spoiled Ron Saunders’s first home match as Villa manager and sent one of his former clubs home with a point they did not deserve.

Frailties that show in the scoreline and in the amount of work Kevin Keelan had to do.

But of course anyone who expected Villa to be very different from last season was unreasonable.

The team was virtually the same and when £90.000 midfield player Frank Carrodus dropped out on the morning of the match with a thigh strain all the faces were known to the Villa Park crowd.

The of only players who looked like scoring were Ray Graydon, who opened the scoring with his hip, John Robson and Chris Nicholl.

The two front runners, Sammy Morgan and Brian Little, managed one chance between them and Little put that wide.

Graydon, who has scored two of Villa’s three goals this season, had a good shot saved by Keelan and the only other shot to match it was the one with which Colin Suggett equalised.

“He didn’t do that for me,” said Saunders.

Robson was impressive in midfield, breaking through several times to shoot while Nicholl used his physical advantages to good effect, going close with two or three headers.

The pattern Is unlikely to change until Saunders can sign a goalscorer.

In the first half Villa often played well but as Saunders said afterwards it was in bits.

They used the wings well until it came to crossing the ball and even John Gidman’s dashes were wasted by inaccurate crosses.

Saunders did not say what he told the team at half-time but for 20 minutes Norwich’s defensive tactics were forced upon them.

Graydon scored in the 52nd minute and it seemed for a while a question of how many.

But the crowd have experienced that sort of feeling before and it came as no surprise when their team lost control and Suggett scored with 15 minutes to go.

In fact all the game’s statistics were accumulated in the second half. Both goals were scored and all four bookings.

The referee, Kevin McNally from Ellesmere Port booked Morgan and Duncan Forbes after they clashed, Phil Boyer for a foul on Graydon and Tony Powell for time-wasting. It spoiled a good performance by Mr. McNally but his crowning moment came when, with Villa ahead, he warned a Norwich player about wasting time.