The eccentricities of referee Alan Turvey were the main points of discussion after the game, but since all the goals came from free kicks perhaps he should be thanked.

Aston Villa scored two goals direct from free kicks the first a startling swerving shot from Leighton Phillips for his first goal for the club, the third a penalty to give Ray Graydon his 13th goal of the season.

And the second followed another of Phillips’ cunningly accurate free kicks being headed Into the net by Chris Nicholl.

Wednesday’s equaliser resulted from a lack of attention to detail by the Villa defence.

The two-man “wall” was inaccurately positioned but even so Jim Cumbes should not have attempted to save Peter Rodrigues’ driven shot, for the free kick was indirect.

But Cumbes blocked the ball and Tommy Craig pushed it over the line.

As well as this Villa reckoned they should have had another penalty when Graydon was brought down by Ken Knighton.

Graydon may have exaggerated his fall but he was certainly toppled.

Strangely Mr Turvey consulted his linesman and gave a free kick to Wednesday.

The reason? Gamesmanship, he said later.

But what about a caution, then, and why a free kick for a dive?

Why not start the game with a goal kick?

All this is part of why players and spectators become frustrated.

In making things hard for himself Mr Turvey had to endure the whistles and jeers of the crowd and this must have upset his concentration.

But if he was bad so was the game.

Villa won comfortably but only in the goal-less second half did they show any form, and then it was only glimpses.

They ran hard enough but there were too few moments to enthuse about.

Wednesday provided the best football with Craig’s left-footed passing being one of the few redeeming features.

But their defence was flabby and their finishing Inaccurate. Not that there ever seemed any danger of Villa losing and they now have a superb home record seven games played, six wins, one draw, 20 goals for only three against.

No other team in the first or second division has scored so many goals at home.

The surprising fact is that there were only 23,977 people at the game.