Villa, seeking their first victory in 11 weeks, showed more attacking initiative that their opponents, particularly in the first 35 minutes. They were unfortunate not to go in front five minutes before half-time when Dion Dublin rose above Marc Vivien Foe to meet Steve Watson’s cross from the right, only to see his powerful header bounce back off a post.

The Villa manager John Gregory, anxious to introduce his latest signing Colin Calderwood from Tottenham, switched from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2. Although Calderwood settled in well alongside his captain Gareth Southgate, Villa tended to struggle with the formation.

Julian Joachim did his best to ruffle the West Ham defence with darting runs from midfield, while Dublin’s aerial power always posed a threat. But as so often in recent weeks, Villa were unable to mount sufficient piercing attacks to test seriously their opponents’ defence.

West Ham, who began the day two points ahead of Villa, seemed content to sit back and rely on the rare counter attack. Indeed their first and only threat on goal in the opening half came during stoppage time. Foe found space down the right and crossed deeply for Paolo Di Canio to turn the ball past Mark Bosnich. But the West Ham joy was short-lived, the effort being ruled out for offside.

The visitors, to their credit, pushed forward with more passion in the second period, perhaps sensing that Villa were there for the taking. After all the home side had picked up just one point from a possible 24 beforehand.

Frank Lampard was influential in the West Ham midfield, engineering most of his side’s attacking moves. But midway through the second half Di Canio wasted his side’s best opportunity of the evening when he burst on to a pass by Paul Kitson only to lift his shot over Bosnich’s bar.

A clever build-up from inside their own half between Draper and Dublin had the West Ham defence at full stretch, but typical of the play Joachim squandered the opportunity to break the deadlock with a shot that failed to trouble Shaka Hislop in the visitors’ goal.

The only consolation for Gregory and his players was that the result meant Villa had ended a run of five successive home defeats.

But after a season that promised so much it seems they must resign themselves to finishing among the also-rans, with their only hope of European qualification being via the InterToto Cup.