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Aston Villa were given every incentive last night to try and forget the board room squabbles by their voluble crowd without quite being able to dismiss the League Cup challenge of Everton.

The 1977 League Cup finalists were locked in another battle which finished all square at the end of 90 minutes and they will now replay at Goodison Park on Tuesday, October 9.

Villa were marginally the better of two poor sides on the night and skipper Dennis Mortimer worked tirelessly to bring them the result which they so desperately needed.

With only two wins from nine games, the tension and pressure is beginning to tell. But after the team and manager Ron Saunders had been given a rousing ovation at the start from the 22,635 crowd they did everything but score.

Everton, who have troubles of their own involving unsettled England centre-forward Bob Latchford, had little to offer to the contest, relying mainly on an offside policy which Villa failed to crack.

New £300,000 striker David Geddis also had an impressive game in only his second outing for the club and his exuberant tussles with Everton's captain Mick Lyons were one of the features of a rather boring evening.

Lyons was always uncompromising and it was almost inevitable that he should be booked after 35 minutes for a foul on the hard working Brian Little.

Everton also had Asa Hartford booked by Salisbury referee Tony Glasson for an ugly incident when he trod on Villa's other new boy. Des Bremner.

The former Scottish under-23 international from Hibernian gave a far more effective display than on his debut against Arsenal on Saturday. His distribution was sound but his timing showed that he still requires match practice.

For most of the proceedings both sides were locked in a midfield stalemate which did not make it a very pretty spectacle.

Everton often had as many as five men in midfield and this made life difficult for Mortimer, Cowans and Bremner but at least they stuck to their task without wilting.

The main trouble was that neither side really looked as if they had a goal scorer in their line-up and all the neat midfield play was often wasted through lack of penetration.

Memories of the three finals in 1977 before Villa finally won the League Cup at Old Trafford came flooding back. But really these two teams were pale imitations of the players who contested those earlier battles.

The first half consisted entirely of both sides cancelling out each others efforts and the standard of play sometimes left a lot to be desired.

But after the interval the pace quickened and Cowans might well have scored In the 46th minute after a smart move down the left by Gidman and Swain.

Offside

A minute later only a last second diving save by Wood prevented Little from putting Villa ahead after Swain had again been involved in the movement.

Geddis had the ball in the net from the corner but he was clearly offside and he "goal" was disallowed.

It was mostly Villa in this period, although Pejic had to make a timely clearance over his own bar after Nulty had beaten Villa's offside trap in the 53rd minute.

With Eastoe racing in, Pejic calmly cleared the ball for a corner and from this Rimmer made a tremendous diving save to keep out a header from Lyons.

Long before the end it was obvious that neither side was going to score and this is exactly how the game ended.