This was an unexpected point gained against the team occupying fifth position in the Premier League. Furthermore we ought to have been awarded a penalty in the second half. That’s the positive view. In fact, the draw was the outcome of a tedious ninety minutes and our opponents haven’t won a game since February. I’m sorry; I’d love to write a report that described skill, tactical nous and excitement but that would take more imagination than I’m blessed with. Even Gary Megson admitted we didn’t play champagne football. How right he was. Sparkle and bubbles were in short supply.

The team news wasn’t encouraging. Ricardo Gardner hadn’t recovered from the injury he picked up in the previous game and was replaced in the starting eleven by Muamba. Chris Basham was relegated to the bench in favour of Tamir Cohen, whose principal contribution to date has been kicking members of the other side. The wretchedly out of form Andy O’Brien was once again preferred to Puygrenier. Otherwise it was the usual suspects in the following 4-5-1 line up: Jaaskelainen; Steinsson, Cahill, O’Brien, Samuel; Davies, Muamba, McCann, Cohen, Taylor; Elmander.

The human memory is conditioned to block painful memories, which means describing the game is going to be difficult. I do remember that McCann was outstanding in the first fifteen minutes against his former club (it didn’t last) and that Elmander did well to retain a poor pass and head for goal, only to be chopped down. However after the early exchanges Villa took control and our vulnerable rearguard was put under pressure. A goal seemed inevitable but surprisingly the defence stood up well and there was some heroic blocking by first O’Brien and then Cohen. However this is the kind of defending you might expect in the closing minutes; I couldn’t see us hanging on in this manner for the rest of the game.

In the midst of the onslaught we had the best chance of the game and it was the product of our one spell of flowing football. The move began with Muamba and involved Cohen and Davies before Taylor crossed to the initiator who had intelligently continued his run into the penalty box. It was a glorious chance but the midfield player scuffed his shot, the ball rattled between his legs and the opportunity was gone. The excellence of the move only served to highlight the inadequacy of the finish.

Notwithstanding this rare flash of coordinated play it seemed that our best chance of scoring was from a dead ball kick. As half time approached we won a corner. ‘A good time to score’ we muttered hopefully. The visitors, however, had the same thought and by the interval they were ahead. And what a travesty of a goal, yet another example of our defence’s tendency to loose concentration. Ashley Young had been a constant menace on Villa’s left wing but the cross he delivered on the stroke of half time was seemingly without threat. However it’s the quiet ones you have to watch and, with our rearguard emulating the wife of Lot, the ball trickled in off the far post. Belief was truly beggared.

The half time period was enlivened by the swirl of bagpipes and the sight of the great John Byrom doing the honours in the lucky dip. There were a few wry comments about the pipers being the best players on view but myself I could only wish that JB might enliven the mundane proceedings with his unorthodox flair.

We began the second half with Davies joining Elmander up front in a 4-4-2 formation and the left footed Cohen playing wide right, presumably in an attempt to nullify the threat from Young. We might have scored early on from another Taylor cross that was headed down by Elmander only for Davies to shank his shot wide of the post. Wanderers were playing marginally better, which isn’t saying much, and now looked the equal of Villa, which isn’t saying much either. But then, after an hour we had something to cheer.

It was what Match of the Day terms ‘a typical Bolton goal’, that is when they deign to say anything about the Wanderers. Taylor lofted a free kick to the head of Davies, he headed it across goal, Andy O’Brien headed it down and Cohen rammed it home with a well struck volley. Not over pretty but very welcome, and a better goal than Villa’s. For a time it seemed we might even take three points. We won a series of corners and it was the visitor’s turn to defend but too often a move broke down with a sloppy pass or a failure to control the ball. Cohen was looking particularly lively at this stage and was unfortunate not to win a penalty when Gareth Barry gave him a clear push inside the area. Whatever Mego’s faults might be, moaning about referees isn’t one of them and he made no reference to this incident in his post match interviews but the fact remains that officials haven’t been kind to us in the matter of penalty kicks this season. Those that should have been given to us haven’t been; those that shouldn’t have been given against have been. Whether we have anyone who could have scored from it is another question.

As the game progressed our defence dropped deeper and deeper and our eyes kept drifting towards the slow-moving clock. Andy O’Brien received a knock and was replaced by Puygrenier, which some of us thought was a step in the right direction, although to be fair, O’Brien had done little wrong. Jussi had to pull out the stops to lift a Carew header over the bar and there were one or two other scares but eventually it was over and we had our point.

No one played well; some were less bad than others. The most pleasing performance was from Tamir Cohen if only because I expected so little. He appears to have curbed his urge to disfigure the shins of his opponents yet was still able to make an impact in midfield where he was the best of a bad lot. And he scored – with his ‘wrong foot’. He was immeasurably better than the woeful Fabrice Muamba who has a similar problem with the ball that King Canute had with the waves. And he was so full of promise when he first arrived. The problem with this midfield central three was that they are all better at winning the ball than doing anything constructive with it. None could make the type of incisive pass that we’ve seen from Mark Davies, none can make incisive runs like Bibi. They are all members of the Water Carriers Union.

Like Muamba, Elmander showed early promise. In the games he played before Christmas he displayed good ball skills and a readiness to shoot with either foot. Currently, these qualities are absent. Apart from the odd decent touch and a lot of effort he is a shadow of his early season self and looks ridiculously over priced. Maybe he has been worn down by trying to fit into a system that doesn’t suit him. Despite some signs earlier in the season that the times were a’changing it once more seems endemic in the Bolton team to lump the ball forward to a big, strong striker. If you are going to do this then there is no better recipient than Kevin Davies. So why buy Elmander, who is a different type of striker, unless you are going to play differently?

Finally, there is the enigma that is Matty Taylor. He has scored more than his share of goals and assisted in many more. In this game it was he that found Davies’s head in the build up to the goal and he delivered the crosses to create the chances for Muamba and Davies. In between he did little of note. This was a typical Taylor performance and the good definitely outweighs the mediocre, but he can be infuriating at times.

It’s as hard to believe that there are seven teams worse than us in the so called best league in the world. It’s even harder to believe that there are only four teams better than Aston Villa, for they were no better than us. Mego praised the team’s enthusiasm, desire and honesty. These are all admirable qualities but surely we are entitled to expect them from people being paid a shed load of money for what they do. How about flair, invention, inspiration? Or even good old passing to someone in the same coloured shirt and controlling the ball with one touch. Oh, I know I’m a grumpy old man. But the number of empty seats in all parts of the ground suggests that many feel the same.

Perhaps it isn’t just the Wanderers. Maybe football is going through one of its tedious phases. I know there has been something of a goal fest amongst the leading clubs recently but over the season as a whole few teams have enthralled me. I’ve always thought the Mogadon Award for the most boring sport was a close contest between speedway and televised snooker but this game suggested that soccer is challenging for a place on the podium.