WHEN Villa were outplayed by Chelsea in October, Martin O’Neill admitted they were “a million miles” from England’s Champions League elite. His team proved the point again yesterday, when they missed the chance to go third in the table with this sterile stalemate, which had the crowd booing the players at the end.

O’Neill made light of the chorus of disapproval, saying he had instructed his wife to stop leading it, but the Holte End was particularly vociferous in its disappointment and fans already disgruntled by admission prices will doubtless be back in smaller numbers for the Uefa Cup tie at home to MSK Zilina on Thursday.

Villa were full of optimism after beating Arsenal and drawing with Manchester United in their previous two matches but this was a clear case of two steps forward, one step back. For the second successive week they failed to score and, for all the talk of progress and potential from their enthusiast of a manager, they still have only two more points than Hull City.

“It was a very disappointing afternoon for us,” O’Neill said. “We came with high hopes, full of confidence after recent performances and results, but we didn’t grasp the opportunity. I don’t accept that we choked, not at all. We’ve got some good players who are still young and they are still learning.” Fulham again deserve credit for their defensive organisation and obduracy. They became the only team to beat Harry Red-knapp’s Tottenham a fortnight ago, drew away to Liverpool last weekend and have lost just one of their past eight matches. Roy Hodgson, that canniest of coaches, continues to work the oracle with a shoestring squad.

For all that, Villa should really have won, Gareth Barry “celebrating” his decision to stay for the rest of the season by spurning three clear-cut chances to score. All of them were with his head. Martin Laursen was profligate in similar circumstances. That the aerial route was Villa’s most promising was down to Ashley Young, who supplied a stream of crosses, only to have them come to naught for want of a decent finish.

O’Neill needs John Carew fit again, and probably another striker when the transfer window opens in January, to sustain the challenge for a top-four place. The manager said of his tall, powerful centre-forward: “Carew would have given us something we lacked. I hope his back trouble clears up quickly and that he’ll be back in a couple of weeks.”

In the big Norwegian’s absence, the manager intends to play Marlon Harewood against Zilina. A young striker, Nathan Delfouneso, will also get on at some stage.

Villa created nearly all the scoring opportunities but, as well as Barry’s three failures from Young invitiations, Laursen produced the same disappointing outcome. Fulham’s best chance saw Clint Dempsey’s thumping drive repelled by Brad Friedel, who was setting a record for consecutive appearances in the Premier League (167), eclipsing another keeper, David James.

Of Fulham’s stifling, safety-first approach, O’Neill said: “They came here cock-a-hoop, having drawn at Anfield, and they played the same system. It is totally their prerogative to play how they want and we couldn’t break them down. At the moment we’re not brilliant enough to steamroller teams. We had three or four opportunities and it would have been great if we’d taken one of them but, even if we had, I would still have felt that we should have created more.”

Hodgson was pleased that his game plan reduced Villa to crossing mostly from deep and felt the main threat had come from set-pieces, with which O’Neill’s team score a high percentage of their goals. “We’ve had an impressive sequence of results,” Hodgson said, “which is down to hard work and discipline. We were more under pressure here than we’ve been for a while but we’ll accept that. Young’s delivery was excellent but so was our back four. I like to think we’re a better team this season, more organised and more solid. It is a dogfight in the bottom half of the table and it would be foolish of me to say we might not be involved at the end of the season. But I believe we have enough quality and strength to get in a position of safety a lot earlier this time.”

And Villa? Could they finish in the top four? Smiling, O’Neill replied: “As I said last week, we’ll definitely win the league.” Nice sense of humour, shame about the game.

ASTON VILLA:Friedel 6, L Young 6, Sidwell 5, Laursen 6, Barry 6, A Young 7, Milner 6, Agbonlahor 6, Davies 6, Petrov 5, Cuellar 6

FULHAM:Schwarzer 5, Konchesky 6, Pantsil 6, Hangeland 7, Johnson 6, Zamora 6 (Gera 85min), Murphy 6, Hughes 6, Bullard 6, Dempsey 6, Davies 6.