Stoke City's fabled stubborn resistance was very much to the fore once again as Aston Villa became the latest side to visit the Britannia and fail to break down the home side.
In a dour opening half, Bulgarian international Stiliyan Petrov managed the only shot on target for Villa, after all of 27 minutes play, but Thomas Sorensen got down well to save.
Stoke fared little better in terms of clear-cut chances, uncharacteristically failing to put Villa under pressure from free-kicks conceded by Richard Dunne and Carlos Cuellar in dangerous areas.
The general sterility of the game continued into the second half. There was a bright opening, however, when Villa's Stewart Downing advanced on goal and unleashed a venomous drive that Sorensen went sprawling for until it took a deflection off striker John Carew and seared into the side-netting.
After that, the play reverted to stalemate, with Tony Pulis introducing Ricardo Fuller and Mamady Sidibe off the bench to shake up his striking options, but both failed to have the desired impact.
Approaching full-time, however, the tempo picked up with Stoke spurning some of the best chances of the match. Most notable was a ten-yard effort from Fuller that James Collins did well to block and force over the crossbar, and then in the dying moments, Robert Huth couldn't keep his header down after Matthew Etherington's corner.