Premiership: Sunderland rescue a point

Sunderland 1 Aston Villa 1

Brazilian defender Emerson Thome spared Kevin Phillips’ blushes with a late equaliser to rescue a point for Sunderland against Aston Villa.

The visitors had taken a 59th-minute lead through Ian Taylor’s header, but the former Chelsea defender struck four minutes from time to snatch a draw.

And that came as a massive relief to England striker Phillips, who had seen a 15th-minute penalty saved by Peter Schmeichel.

The great Dane turned in a stunning display, producing a string of fine saves - none of them better than his spot-kick heroics.

It was the striker’s third successive miss from the spot on an afternoon when he nevertheless turned in an individual display which more than deserved a goal.

But manager Peter Reid was left once again to reflect on his side’s lack of goals as two points went begging on a day when his side failed to take their chances.

Reid wrote in his programme notes: ‘‘Saturday’s match at Portman Road came too late for me to talk about in today’s column, but I’ll be disappointed if we haven’t built on two good wins over Christmas.’’

He can little have expected to have been presented with such a repair job, but he kept faith with the same 11 men who lost 5-0 in Suffolk and demanded a positive response.

Villa boss John Gregory opted to leave out Paul Merson and George Boateng in favour of Ian Taylor and Steve Stone, while striker Dion Dublin was also recalled.

But the first half unfolded as a duel between arguably the biggest names in either side, Phillips and Schmeichel.

Both men were in inspired form, the former working feverishly to create chances for himself and his team-mates and the latter doing everything within his sizable powers to stop him.

The former Manchester United keeper only once lost his bearings, straying from his line on 11 minutes and almost being caught out by Phillips’ astute dipping volley which dropped inches wide of his left post.

But other than that, he did not put a foot wrong, denying Phillips after 19 minutes and 39 minutes and seeing another raking effort evade his dive but sail just wide.

But the pick of the bunch came on 15 minutes when the two went eyeball to eyeball 12 yards apart.

Referee Mike Riley ruled that defender Jlloyd Samuel had pulled back Niall Quinn as he homed in on Phillips’ cross and immediately pointed to the spot.

The England striker, who saw his last penalty saved by Chelsea’s Carlo Cudicini, went low to Schmeichel’s left, but the keeper guessed correctly and dived low to block his effort.

Julio Arca could do no better in first-half injury-time when he shot straight at the positionally-perfect goalkeeper to sum up a frustrating but more encouraging display by the Wearsiders.

For their part, the visitors mustered little in attack apart from a long-range effort from Samuel which kept Thomas Sorensen on his toes, but the pace of Darius Vassell served as a warning for the second 45 minutes.

The second-half unfolded in much the same fashion as the first as Sunderland - and particularly Phillips - hammered away at the Villa defence, but the threat posed by the visitors was underlined after 48 minutes when Vassell cracked a left-footed drive just wide.

At the other end, Emerson Thome thumped a volley straight at Steve Staunton and Phillips again tested Schmeichel from long range, but still the way to goal would not open up.

And as the game wore on, there was a distinct lack of players in red and white shirts ready to take the responsibility to go for goal, with Quinn passing up a good opportunity to shoot after 58 minutes to cross instead, and again the Danish keeper was the only winner.

That reluctance to pull the trigger cost the Black Cats dear seconds later when Steve Stone fed Vassell down the left and he weighted his cross perfectly for Taylor to head past Sorensen.

Sunderland’s response was entirely predictable as they surged forward in ever increasing numbers.

But again Schmeichel remained the dominant figure, keeping out another well-struck Phillips shot after he had turned away from Staunton and cut inside Olof Mellberg, and then getting down well to claim Gavin McCann’s 71st-minute strike.

Substitute Gareth Barry whistled a right-foot volley just wide nine minutes from time, but the equaliser arrived five minutes later.

Staunton was penalised for an foul on McCann and Arca sent a spiralling cross into the box where Thome climbed highest to head firmly past Schmeichel.