I’ve been a bit hard on the lads over the last few weeks, but there was an awful lot to like and be pleased about here. This was our best performance for months and showed signs that a recovery and return to form is possible.

I was encouraged by an excellent twenty minute passage we had in the first half, because we used the ball well, looked dangerous going forward and that individual quality we lacked was there in abundance through Dijbril Cissé.

It was a really good point in the end and what started as a very frustrating kind of first half performance that asked a lot of questions of the side, it ended with some really positive answers.

It’s easy to forget that it was generally a good performance, especially in the first-half, although I thought we were somewhat average in the second. It’s easy to come away disappointed, because it was two points dropped, but I’m not going to be too hard on the boys. They played well overall and we were very unlucky that Shaun Wright-Phillips cracking effort was disallowed.

This match had a Championship feel about it, with both teams looking more concerned about not losing and happy to come away with something rather than really wanting to win the game.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a side play as dirty as that. Aston Villa were really cynical with their approach and it was a shame that such a poor standard of officiating allowed them to resort to that, and get away with it.