By Paul Brown

It was honours even on a cold night at Villa Park - although both sides could have won the match at the death.

Gabby Agbonlahor gave Villa an early lead when he prodded the ball home from close-range. Carlos Cuellar's point-blank header - from James Milner's inswinging corner - was cleared off the line but Villa's pace ace used all his ingenuity and awareness to get to the rebound ahead of Wilson Palacios and Michael Dawson and fire home.

Peter Crouch was denied an equaliser soon after the opener when Villa's Spanish defensive giant managed to somehow blast clear the striker's goalbound effort.

Tottenham proved to be second half sensations last week against Wigan and they certainly upped their game in this contest after the break.

But Villa defended stoutly for long periods of that second 45 minutes.

Niko Kranjcar saw a fierce drive brilliantly palmed away by Brad Friedel while referee Phil Dowd denied the visitors when he spotted a Jermain Defoe handball on the line as the in-form sharp-shooter bundled home from close-range.

Just when you felt Martin O'Neill's men had weathered the storm, Tottenham forced an equaliser - although it took something special to beat the experienced claret and blue shot-stopper.

Centre-half Dawson brought down Benoit Assou-Ekotto's cross before hammering an unstoppable 18-yard drive beyond the USA ace.

There were two superb chances to win the hard-fought contest in injury time.

Emile Heskey, a second half replacement for John Carew, so nearly pounced for Villa.

He kneeled to get on the end of Ashley Young's delightful cross but, as the Holte End gasped, his bullet header flew just over and nestled on the top of the net.

But Harry Redknapp's men also had a fantastic chance to sneak off with a maximum haul.

In-form Defoe found a bit of space in the box before seeing his well-struck drive fly marginally wide.