Hammers and Villa share spoils

Aston Villa's David Ginola scores Villa's second

Aston Villa 2-2 West Ham

A Frank Lampard goal three minutes from time earned West Ham a valuable draw away at Aston Villa.

The Hammers, struggling at the wrong end of the table, went a goal ahead 20 seconds after the interval when Frederic Kanoute tucked home a Lampard cross.

But back came Villa when flying French winger David Ginola struck a superb 20-yard free kick and then provided an assist for Lee Hendrie to give the home side the lead.

  Match incidents

7 min: Hendrie's tame shot fails to trouble Hislop

46: Kanoute slots home

71: Ginola scores free-kick

77: Hendrie gives Villa the lead

87: Lampard scores with last-gasp effort

But with just a few minutes remaining up popped Lampard to slot home.

A contest between Villa, who possess one of the meanest defences in the Premiership, and and goal-shy West Ham, was always going to be tight encounter.

In a first-half, which could be politely described as tepid, both midfields cancelled each other out, either through tigerish defending or the inability to find their respective strikers.

He (Ginola) more than played his part today

  Villa boss
John Gregory

Kanoute and Paolo di Canio looked a pale shade of the players that waltzed around defences at the start of the season.

But with Harry Redknapp's Hammers perilously close to the relegation zone, it was understandable that the forward pair were playing a slightly more withdrawn role to counter the threat of Ginola and Paul Merson.

Villa tried to make use of Ginola down the left-flank as much as possible.

The Frenchman showed flashes of brilliance on occasions, but with five at the back and often with two ganging up, he was stopped in his tracks before getting a chance to deliver a killer ball.

Stimac (l) kept Joachim under control

But the famous saying of "no two halves are the same" came into practice when Frenchman Kanoute scored to give the Hammers a valuable lead, before many of the spectators had come back from their interval tea-break.

Midfielder Lampard surged down the left to cut the ball back for the striker, who made no mistake with his drive.

Villa were spurred into action.

I think the young kids will learn from this experience

  West Ham boss
Harry Redknapp

Slowly but surely both Ginola, Merson, Julian Joachim and substitute Darius Vassell were beginning to make inroads into the West Ham defence.

It was Ginola who took responsibility when Villa were awarded a free-kick and the Frenchman who proved his worth to manager John Gregory by curling his 20-yard effort past the reach of Shaka Hislop.

Just minutes later Villa took the lead when Ginola stormed down the left to provide a low cross for Hendrie who blasted the ball past Hislop.

Just when it seemed that Villa Park had seen all the goals for the day, Lampard stole in to grab West Ham's equaliser much to the relief of his boss Redknapp.

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Aston Villa: James, Delaney, Southgate, Taylor, Merson, Staunton, Joachim, Ginola, Barry, Hendrie, Stone. Subs: Wright, Boateng, Angel, Vassell, Enckelman.

West Ham: Hislop, Stuart Pearce, Stimac, Di Canio, Kanoute, Song, Moncur, Winterburn, Lampard, Carrick, Schemmel. Subs: Potts, Cole, Bywater, Soma, Todorov.

Referee: R Harris (Oxford).