Fulham 0 Aston Villa 0
Aston Villa debutant Shay Given denied Fulham victory in their first Premier League match under Martin Jol.
Goalkeeper Given, a £4m capture from Manchester City, kept Jol’s side at bay with a number of fine saves.
Summer signing John Arne Riise should have marked his league debut for Fulham with a goal after only nine minutes.
The Norwegian galloped down the left and was allowed time and space to latch onto Danny Murphy’s perfect pass, only to blast over the bar.
Villa missed a good chance of their own when Mark Schwarzer was able to comfortably save Emile Heskey’s tame effort after the former England man drifted away from Philippe Senderos to meet Richard Dunne’s ball into the box.
Defender James Collins should also have opened the scoring for Villa but missed the target from close range after being found by Charles N’Zogbia’s cross.
Stiliyan Petrov then smashed just over Schwarzer’s bar, before a mistake by Collins at the other end let in Andrew Johnson, whose shot was parried by Given.
The Irishman, making his first Premier League appearance for 16 months, produced an even better stop just after half-time.
Johnson nudged Damien Duff’s right-wing cross on to Zamora, and Given did brilliantly to deny the former Tottenham striker from six yards.
Given thwarted Zamora twice more, first by saving his header and then keeping out his shot after he had been set up by Murphy.
Villa, playing their first game under new manager Alex McLeish, rarely threatened in the second half.
The closest they came to nicking a winner was when Heskey pulled the ball back for Marc Albrighton to fire into the side netting.
This post was last modified on 17/08/2011