Pressure increases on O'Leary after stalemate

Saturday, 25, Mar 2006 05:22

The pressure on Aston Villa manager David O'Leary has increased further today as his side could only manage a dour 0-0 draw at home to fellow Premiership strugglers Fulham.

A point apiece will do little to allay nagging fears of relegation in Birmingham or west London, but O'Leary is likely to be the least happy with yet another uninspiring performance from his players.

The Irishman has often bemoaned his small squad at Villa Park and the spate of injuries that have afflicted his players and that was in evidence again today as Olof Mellberg, Milan Baros, James Milner and JLloyd Samuel all missed out.

But they did have Juan Pablo Angel and Kevin Phillips back, although the Colombian striker was left on the bench, much to the Villa Park faithful's chagrin.

The game itself had little to write home about, with wantaway midfielder Lee Hendrie going closest for the home side and Steed Malbranque having Fulham's two best chances in the second half.

Meanwhile, at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland continue to look for their first home win of the season after succumbing to a 1-0 defeat by Blackburn.

Irishman Steven Reid scored the only goal of the game, after a mazy run from his own half on 15 minutes, with Sunderland's beleaguered defenders apparently holding the door open for him to run at them.

At the JJB Stadium there was late heartbreak for Paul Jewell's Wigan side, who saw a 1-0 lead over West Ham become a 2-1 defeat after a 90th minute goal from Hammers captain Nigel Reo-Coker.

The Latics had looked the better side for most of the match and Lee McCullough's superb strike on the stroke of half-time was just reward for their dominance.

But a mistake from Austrian Paul Scharner shortly after the break gave in-form Marlon Harewood a simple chance to level and the evergreen Teddy Sheringham picked out Reo-Coker with the final whistle imminent to steal the points for the visitors.