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*Villa lack crucial spark*

A crowd of 34,643, a ground record, witnessed a stale goalless draw which cast doubt over Aston Villa’s title aspirations. As Chelsea were in the process of displacing John Gregory’s team at the top of the Premiership, Villa were devoid of the necessary spark of ingenuity to break down a dogged, if unspectacular, home team.

The one element of creativity on the field was provided by Paul Gascoigne, whose second-half performance deserved to be a match-winning effort. Unfortunately yet another yellow card left Gazza the centre of attention for the wrong reasons.

Bryan Robson had entreated his players to produce greater effort in an attempt to rediscover the form that brought them that spectacular pre-Christmas victory at Old Trafford. Three straight defeats since then had seen them plummet down the table and Robson’s bid to lead the club to their best post-war top-flight finish since a sixth place in 1951 had diminished accordingly.

Early signs in a stale first half were not encouraging. Gascoigne drifted in and out of proceedings, playing the sort of cameo role that has sadly become the norm of late. Neil Maddison almost capitalised on a poor clearance from Gareth Barry while Brian Deane and Hamilton Ricard posed their normal aerial threat to Villa’s defence. Deane connected with one attempt, meeting an Andy Townsend cross and placing his effort just wide of the left-hand post.

In the 23rd minute, Deane rose to meet a cross from Ricard, who had pulled out into a deep position wide on the left, only to have the ball forced away from him by Gareth Southgate. There was more than a hint of hand-ball about the England defender’s clearance but the unsighted referee, Uriah Rennie, turned down the concerted appeals.

It took a slip by the visiting goalkeeper, Michael Oakes, to present Middlesbrough with the best opening of the half as he dealt inadequately with Curtis Fleming’s right-wing cross. His unconvincing punch fell for Dean Gordon, whose drive past the out-of-position keeper was comfortably blocked by Southgate.

As a disappointing first period finally generated goalmouth interest late in proceedings, Oakes made amends for that error, acrobatically tipping an intelligent chip from Ricard over the crossbar.

But if Middlesbrough lacked the necessary guile to make an impression on the league-leaders’ defence, Villa were no less disappointing. Dion Dublin, recalled in the place of Stan Collymore, saw his goalbound header from a Lee Hendrie free-kick turned over the bar by Mark Schwarzer’s fingertip save.

At least Gascoigne could be relied upon to generate interest. A late challenge on Lee Hendrie earned him his tenth yellow card of the season. While he will escape a third suspension of the season, one more yellow card will bring him in front of an FA disciplinary hearing.

Barry followed Gascoigne into Rennie’s notebook moments later for a similarly rash challenge on Maddison.

Deteriorating weather conditions after the interval hardly held any promise of an improvement in the previously disappointing standard of football. Middlesbrough started the second period brightly enough, Gascoigne starting to produce one or two of his trademark flurries, but the best they could offer was a series of crosses towards the heads of Deane and Ricard which were comfortably dealt with by the Villa defence.

When Deane did, for once, beat his marker to the ball, connecting with Maddison’s right-wing cross, his effort lacked the power or direction to provide Oakes with anything other than a routine catch.

Hendrie broke the flow of one-way traffic briefly, appearing on the end of a tidy, flowing move to line up a shot which was deflected away for a corner.

The next Villa attack exposed a rare degree of uncertainty in Schwarzer as the keeper dealt with a Watson cross with a half-hearted punch.

Boro’s response was swift and committed. Gascoigne linked with Ricard, the Colombian’s cross found Townsend and his shot was diverted over the bar by Ehiogu. The resulting Gascoigne corner in turn found Maddison, whose header was again tipped over the bar, one-handed, by Oakes.