BUT for the last 10 minutes, when West Ham staged their unexpected and incisive rally, it looked as if this windswept game would end with a whimper — and a 1-0 win for Aston Villa.

They had gone ahead in the 11th minute. Gareth Barry — not for the first time, the best player on the field, cool and rational throughout — found James Milner on the right. With West Ham’s defence alarmingly open, Milner was able to cross for Emile Heskey to score into the bottom left corner.

With several West Ham absences, Lucas Neill was moved to central midfield and moves didn’t flow, despite the constant application of Luis Boa Morte.

They had a substantial chance to equalise after a bright move in which Boa Morte was prominent, but when the ball ran to James Tomkins, he struck the ball over the bar.

On 16 minutes a left-wing corner by Villa’s highly committed left-winger Ashley Young reached Milner, whose fierce drive was turned round the near post by the resourceful Robert Green.

In the next minute Villa missed a palpable chance of doubling the score when John Carew found Barry, but when his left-wing centre seemed to expose the visiting goal, Stiliyan Petrov couldn’t quite make contact.

West Ham could so easily have gone two goals down 10 minutes later. Mark Noble, quite untypically, under-hit his back pass, giving Heskey a chance, but his shot hit the left-hand post.

Though the quality of the first-half football was not exceptional, and real chances comparatively few, at least it had been a bright as well as breezy game.

It should be recorded that the Aston Villa announcer revealed before kick-off that Villa would “reluctantly” be wearing their all-white third strip, “owing to a colour clash”. But when West Ham took the field almost wholly in sky blue, you wondered whether that change of strip from the traditional claret and blue worn usually by both sides was wholly essential.

In the 47th minute Carew neatly found Heskey but though the striker was within close range, Green came out to block the ball near his right-hand post.

In the 77th minute Nicky Shorey’s high ball from the left was headed over the top, rather than into the net by Carew.

This seemed to be the signal for West Ham suddenly to get into their stride, take over the midfield and fashion a series of opportunities which resulted eventually in their equaliser and could almost at the end have brought them the winner. Two fresh attackers, Savio Nsereko and Freddie Sears, were introduced and Diego Tristan moved into a more central position.

On 79 minutes, after a tremendous scramble in the Villa penalty box, Boa Morte made strong contact, only to be blocked by Brad Friedel. Six minutes later Kieron Dyer shot, and Tristan expertly and accurately got his head to the ball to level the scores. In the 89th minute West Ham might have won when a high attempt by Noble was turned over by Friedel.

Just before the final whistle Carew broke through, only to be thwarted by Tomkins’ hand. No penalty was given.

Victory, for all their late and vigorous rally, would have flattered West Ham and been hard on Villa.

Predictably West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola was happier than Villa’s Martin O’Neill. “It was a very good display of football,” said Zola. “Maybe a few more goals were missing, but it was an exciting game. We can be satisfied. We can see West Ham totally deserved a point.”

O’Neill said: “Going forward we were absolutely brilliant again, but we were unable to see it through. After 25 minutes we could have scored five. We were unable to get the second goal. The equaliser was going wide but the fellow got the touch and it just drifted into the net.”

Star man:Gareth Barry (Aston Villa)
Yellow cards: Aston Villa: A Young, Petrov. West Ham:Noble, Boa Morte, Upson.
Referee:R Styles.
Attendance:39,534

ASTON VILLA:Friedel 7, L Young 6, Davies 6, Cuellar 6, Shorey 6, Milner 6 (Gardner 88min), Petrov 6, Barry 7, A Young 6, Heskey 6 (Delfouneso 70min), Carew 6
WEST HAM:Green 7, Tomkins 6, Upson 6, Collins 6 (Dyer 32min, 6), Ilunga 6, Neill 6, Boa Morte 7, Stanislas 6 (Nsereko 73min), Noble 6, Di Michele 6 (Sears 80min), Tristan 6