There are goalless draws and goalless draws. Some are good value for money, some amount to much ado about precious little.

Aston Villa's 0-0 match at Ipswich on Saturday nearly, but not quite, fell into the latter category - a lot of effort by both sides which left the onlooker largely unmoved.

A drab, spoiling first half was followed by a second in which the temperature took an upward turn as the teams fought for what was clearly going to be a deciding goal.

But the stalemate remained unbroken. Ipswich, who generally held a slim initiative, could not conquer their besetting fault of failing to profit by their chances, and Villa, when they got within sniping range consistently froze solid and were rapidly repelled.

There were two incidents which briefly promised goals. In the last minute of the first half Villa broke out and Geddis, the former Ipswich striker, touched the ball on to Shaw, whose low angled shot slid off full-back Burley's boot and with goalkeeper Cooper out of position, hit a post.

It was an unselfish pass by Geddis, who might well have taken the shot himself and scored his first goal for Villa For the rest, he got little change out of his former colleagues.

Then, in the dying minute of a match which was still heading nowhere, Wark slipped a challenge by Villa goalkeeper, Rimmer, and saw his shot roll slowly away and also hit wood.

For Villa, however, there was the reward of extending their unbeaten run in the First Division to eight matches which leaves them only five points behind the leaders, Manchester United with a game in hand.

Their defensive display exemplified by a sterling performance by McNaught, was another tribute to their determination not to be steered off course by unseemly boardroom wrangling.

As manager Ron Saunders said: "It was a good performance. There was a lot to be pleased about and after another six or seven games we shall be a very good team."