Game #4908
Sunday, 19 November 2006
Attendance: 18,455
Drew
Premier League
5th (-)
Wigan Athletic
Last 5: 🟥 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟨
JJB Stadium
Villa are held to a goalless draw at Wigan but extend their run under Martin O'Neill to just one defeat in thirteen Premier League games.
Wigan Athletic
0-0
Aston Villa
Assist(s) | None
KEY MAN
Martin O'Neill extends his run to one defeat in thirteen Premier League games as his side are held to a goalless draw by Wigan at the JJB, Sunday, 19 November 2006.
PREVIOUS MATCH
NEXT MATCH
MATCH TIMELINE
🕒 | HT Wigan Athletic 0-0 Aston Villa
🔁 | 51’ Sub off, Peter Whittingham, Sub on, Didier Agathe 🔴
🔁 | 67’ Sub off, Juan Pablo Ángel, Sub on, Steven Davis
🕒 | FT Wigan Athletic 0-0 Aston Villa
ON THIS DAY
Villa make it one defeat in 13 in the Premier League, drawing seven and winning five as Martin O'Neill takes a squad, largely inherited, with only Stiliyan Petrov a paid for addition, and transforms a squad that had lost eight of their last 13 games under David O'Leary, drawing three and winning two.
Meanwhile, winger Peter Whittingham made his final appearance for Villa aged 22 before moving on to Cardiff City for a fee of £473,000 in January 2007. Whittingham had come through the ranks as a schoolboy and made his debut aged 18 in the 2002-03 season. Over his 5 seasons with Villa, Peter made 66 appearances including 27 as substitute and scored twice. Tragically Whittingham died after a fall at the age of 35 in March 2020.
Winger Didier Agathe also made his final appearance for Villa aged 31 before moving on to Saint-Pierroise on a free transfer in January 2007. Didier had joined Villa as a free agent earlier in the 2006-07 season and made 6 substitute appearances for the club.
Aston Villa
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96
Wigan Athletic
European Cup / Champions League: ❌
League Champions: ❌
FA Cup Winners: ❌
League Cup Winners: ❌
Last Trophy: ❌
FIXTURE HISTORY
Wigan Athletic
Previous 5 vs. Wigan: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟥
FIXTURE DETAILS
Season | 2006-07 |
Matchday | #16 |
League Game | #13 |
Manager Game | #16 |
Sunday, 19 November 2006
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager: Martin O’Neill | 🇬🇧 | County Londonderry, 2006-2010
Referee: Steve Bennett | 🏴 | Kent, 1995-2010
Kick off: 1.30pm
HT Score: 🟨 0-0
FT Score: 🟨 0-0
FT Result: 🟨 Drew
Last 5: 🟥 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟨
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Steve Bennett | 🏴 | Kent, 1995-2010
Previous 5: 🟨 🟥 🟩 🟨 🟥
Last Match: 🟥 28 Oct 06, Villa 1-3 Liverpool (a)
Cards: 🟨
CARDS
TEAM NEWS
Gareth Barry and Peter Whittingham (first start in 13) replace Stiliyan Petrov and Gavin McCann.
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 25.75 |
Oldest Player |
CF Chris Sutton | 🏴 | 33.72 |
Youngest Player |
M Isaiah Osbourne | 🏴 | 19.05 |
MANAGER
MANAGER
Martin O'Neill | 🇬🇧 |
Paul Jewell | 🏴 |
Aston Villa
GK Thomas Sörensen | 🇩🇰 |
RB Wilfred Bouma | 🇳🇱 |
CB Liam Ridgewell | 🏴 |
CB Olof Mellberg | 🇸🇪 |
CB Gary Cahill | 🏴 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴 |
M Isaiah Osbourne | 🏴 |
W Peter Whittingham | 🏴 | 🔁 |
CF Juan Pablo Ángel | 🇨🇴 | 🔁 |
CF Chris Sutton | 🏴 |
F Gabriel Agbonlahor | 🏴 |
Wigan Athletic
GK Chris Kirkland | 🏴 |
CB Arjan de Zeeuw | 🇳🇱 |
CB Lee McCulloch | 🏴 |
RB Matt Jackson | 🏴 | 🟨 |
RB Emerson Boyce | 🇬🇵 |
M Paul Scharner | 🇦🇹 |
M David Wright | 🏴 |
M Josip Skoko | 🇦🇺 | 🔁 |
W Kevin Kilbane | 🇮🇪 |
W Gary Teale | 🏴 | 🔁 |
CF Henri Camara | 🇸🇳 |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 W Didier Agathe | 🇫🇷 | 🔴 | for W Peter Whittingham | 🏴 | 51’ |
🔁 M Steven Davis | 🇬🇧 | for CF Juan Pablo Ángel | 🇨🇴 | 67’ |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 | M Josip Skoko | 🇦🇺 | (M Denny Landzaat | 🇳🇱 |)
🔁 | W Gary Teale | 🏴 | (W David Cotterill | 🏴 |)
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Stuart Taylor | 🏴 |
W Patrik Berger | 🇨🇿 |
F Milan Baroš | 🇨🇿 |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK John Filan | 🇦🇺 |
CB Andy Webster | 🏴 |
M Andreas Johansson | 🇸🇪 |
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 7/11
Homegrown: 6/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 9/16
Homegrown: 7/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 5/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 7/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
UNAVAILABLE
Not recorded
UNAVAILABLE
Not Recorded
Player Abbreviations:
GK : Goalkeeper
LB, RB, FB : Left Back, Right Back, Full Back
CB, D : Centre Back, Defender
M, W : Midfielder. Winger
F, CF : Forward, Centre Forward
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game
Symbols:
⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
DEBUT APPEARANCES
FINAL APPEARANCES
W Didier Agathe | 🇫🇷 |
MATCH STATS
Not recorded
TABLE

PROGRAMME

MATCHDAY QUOTES
“We knew it would not be easy coming here and so it proved.
“They were miles better than us in the first half, but after half-time we came into it more and looked more dangerous.
“But it would have been harsh on Wigan if we had sneaked the three points, so overall I think we have done well.”
Martin O’Neill.
*The Guardian*
Monday, 20 November 2006
*Jewell and O’Neill find value in noughts*
It says much for Martin O’Neill’s organisational and motivational skills that a bunch of players as collectively limited as this Aston Villa side might have gone into third place in the Premiership had they defeated Wigan Athletic yesterday lunchtime. This was always going to be a tight match, although after Thomas Sorensen saved from Lee McCulloch’s header inside the first minute the statistical inevitability of a goalless conclusion pressed down like a suffocating pillow.
Wigan, in 49 previous Premiership matches, had never been involved in a 0-0 draw, so if not a cast-iron certainty, the chances of it occurring yesterday were pretty high. Posts were hit and both goalkeepers at times found themselves clutching the ball more in surprise than any certainty of anticipation. That said, genuine openings were few and far between.
Paul Jewell’s team, on the back of four successive victories and seven goals in their previous two home matches, will feel they should have won, given their greater amount of possession, notably in the first half, although they might have had a point snatched away from them in the last 20 minutes or so when Gabriel Agbonlahor, pushed forward where his pace was the most dangerous, almost found a way through, and it took an excellent tackle by the Australian Josip Skoko to halt him.
Such is the inherent discipline of each team that neither are ever likely to lose their shape, unless hell or high water intervenes, so initially there was considerable fascination in observing the thrust and counter-thrust, with Wigan’s quality of crosses the more telling. McCulloch probably should have scored from Henri Camara’s excellent ball from the right, although Sorensen, virtually on his knees, did well to get his body in the way. And he made an even better save in the second half from Paul Scharner.
Jewell thought that in the first half his side played as well as they have ever done in the Premiership, which was perhaps erring on the generous side. “I thought we were terrific, I can’t say how pleased I am. For a 0-0 draw it was a good game, with two very honest teams. There was no diving or time-wasting.” That last point was certainly true, although the standard of Wigan’s play may have been seen by Jewell through glasses tinted by O’Neill’s reputation rather than Villa’s performance on the day.
By half-time the match was already becoming ragged at the edges, epitomised when Camara, his primrose boots flashing in a flailing arc, attempted an overhead kick and skewed the ball away at 90 degrees. He beat both fists into the turf at the frustration of it all, and was barely noticed thereafter. “He can be bothersome,” said O’Neill, with delicious understatement, having managed the Senegal striker at Celtic.
Wigan had two good chances early in the second half, the first when Isaiah Osbourne dived in an attempt to clear Emmerson Boyce’s cross and guided the ball against a post. “He had a good game but would have had no life tomorrow if that one had gone in,” said O’Neill with a smile. Then came Sorensen’s save from Scharner, the Austrian clutching his head in disappointment.
Villa increasingly relied on the quick counter and might have tilted the game in their favour had Gareth Barry rolled the ball inside to Juan Pablo Angel rather than shoot himself.
O’Neill praised the resilience of his side, although admitted it would have been “rather harsh” had they sneaked the game, which was always a possibility as Wigan pressed forward.
So not the worst of goalless draws but certainly one of the more inevitable.