*James saved by the whistle*

A chilled and nervous crowd watched, sighed in relief and ultimately cursed the officials last night as two of the Premiership’s more out-of-sorts sides grappled their way to a nail-biting stalemate.

Trailing to Julian Joachim’s second-half goal, Sunderland rallied late on as Stefan Schwarz’s 25-yard free-kick was deflected off Alan Wright and parried by the hapless David James.

Daniele Dichio’s follow-up succeeded only in finding Gavin McCann, who gleefully tapped the equaliser into the empty net.

Then came the furore. In the dying seconds James made amends by deflecting Dichio’s point-blank effort wide. From the subsequent corner the goalkeeper fell in a heap and the Sunderland substitute blasted into the empty net, only for an assistant referee’s flag to cut short the celebrations. “Someone, somewhere obstructed me,” claimed James. In fact it was his teammate Ian Taylor.

“I think we were slightly unfortunate,” said the home manager Peter Reid, celebrating his 250th league match in charge spanning almost six years on Wearside. At least Villa did not become only the 16th team to leave victorious.

“It looked like a really good goal. I don’t want to criticise anyone because I’ll sound like a moaner, but it may have cost us two points. They say that luck evens itself out, so we’re in for some interesting decisions in the last few weeks of the season.”

In truth, the draw did little for either side’s prospects. Villa continue to hover precariously over the relegation scrap with only two league wins in 15 since they climbed to fourth in November. Sunderland go fifth but remain without a top-flight victory for two months, rekindling nightmarish memories of last season’s three-month slump - an 11-match winless streak that derailed their challenge and left them in seventh place.

Oddly, a similar finish this season could earn them a Uefa Cup berth given the migraine-inducing intricacies of European qualification. It would require Liverpool finishing in the top three and winning the FA Cup and the Uefa Cup, with the FA Cup runners-up finishing in the top four.

Sunderland should have given their fans more to think about by edging ahead after only four minutes. James shanked his clearance straight to Niall Quinn - soon to depart with a recurrence of a back injury - who advanced into the area to shoot across the England goalkeeper and wide of the far post with Don Hutchison unmarked and livid in the middle.

The Scot, forced into a striker’s role in the absence of Kevin Phillips, might have had a penalty midway through the half after tripping over Alpay Ozalan off the ball.

The frenzied opening soon blew itself out, but James did his best to rekindle the whirlwind by spilling McCann’s innocuous shot. In nipped Julio Arca to chip over the goalkeeper, who was sprawled sheepishly at his feet, but he then scuffed his shot desperately across goal; Hutchison added to the comedy by skewing his effort back across the gaping goal the other way.

The visitors threatened only sporadically with Paul Merson their creative inspiration, class oozing with every graceful twist. On one rare foray Dion Dublin sent Joachim clear five minutes before the interval only for Thomas Sorensen to block the vicious shot.

The former Leicester striker had better luck seven minutes into the second period.

James’s long clearance bounced towards the home area with Emerson Thome in a muddle and, after Lee Hendrie nodded back skywards, Joachim gathered, turned and crashed his shot low beyond the exposed Sorensen’s dive.

The home side deserved better but must have feared the worst when Hutchison blasted a free-kick on to the bar. Then came McCann’s tap-in and a madcap finish.

“Three points would have been a major turning point but we let them slip away,” said John Gregory. “We should have used the ball better at 1-0 but we were sucked into the way Sunderland were playing.”

“We needed a bit more composure, but I look at it as one defeat in four. My head’s always on the block and it will be while I am manager of Aston Villa. That’s just the way it is.”