West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa played out a 0-0 draw to claim a point each at the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon.
Stephen Warnock had the first effort of the game on seven minutes, but the full-back had his shot well blocked.
West Brom then broke forward for their first real opportunity on 12 minutes, but the resulting shot from Chris Brunt was shut out by Aston Villa's defence.
There were few chances on goal in the opening stages of the first half, with both teams seemingly cancelling each other out.
On 23 minutes, Jonas Olsson drove towards goal but just couldn't find the finish to end the move.
Villa found a new lease of life on the half-hour mark and began to push forward and create chances. Emile Heskey came close but put his shot wide of the mark.
Ben Foster then showed fantastic awareness to race out and lunge towards the feet of Gabriel Agbonlahor to deny the forward a goalscoring chance.
On 33 minutes, Foster made another sensational save to keep out Agbonlahor again after he was put through by Heskey.
The away side had an appeal for handball turned down on 41 minutes. The referee ignored the players' protests and waved play on.
Despite an improvement in the last 15 minutes, the score stayed at 0-0 as the half-time whistle blew.
West Brom came out for the second half as the stronger of the two sides, putting Villa on the backfoot.
On 48 minutes, Liam Ridgewell saw his free header blocked. West Brom players claimed the ball struck Alan Hutton's hand but appeals were again dismissed.
The game picked up as Villa began to get forward more often. Foster made another save on 56 minutes, this time to deny Charles N'Zogbia from close range.
West Brom went close on 73 minutes when Thomas's cross found Olsson, who couldn't quite direct his header into the back of the net.
It looked as though Villa were ready to settle for a point when Alex McLeish replaced N'Zogbia with Gary Gardner after 74 minutes.
Both sides saw out the game to share the points, leaving Villa just three points clear of the relegation zone in 15th place, while West Brom sit comfortably in 10th.
Sam Hughes
