Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC/Getty ImagesStoke City forward Kenwyne Jones, seen here battling with Aston Villa's Ciaran Clark, was rewarded with a start by manager Tony Pulis.

It wasn't pretty. In fact, at times it was downright painful viewing, but it was another clean sheet and another point for the Potters on the road.

It's no surprise that this game has been chosen as the last match on Match of the Day tonight. In fact, there wouldn't have been too many complaints if they had showed it after the Football League show, such was the lack of excitement if not incident.

- Pulis gives warning to Shotton

I was happy to see that Kenwyne Jones' work was rewarded with another start, but he suffered in isolation as the team struggled to come to terms with Villa's pace and power in attack and sat deeper and deeper. Stoke's failings in the transfer market have been ruthlessly exposed this season and today was another case of not being able to change things around by bringing on better options.

It was clear early on that Stoke were struggling and to his credit, Tony Pulis at least changed the shape around in attempt to contain Villa's offensive threat. But sadly, that meant that the game was almost entirely about containing the opposition which made for an uncomfortable and long afternoon. With the players we have available I'm not sure the manager could have done too much more, though that lack of options, especially in the fullback positions, requires urgent attention next month.

The one thing I personally would have done differently though would have been to get Michael Kightly on. Once we had changed to three at the back early on, Ryan Shotton was effectively playing as a defensive winger and found himself time and again with acres of space and time to make something happen, yet not being able to do so.

Kightly would have taken advantage of that and the side wouldn't have lost any of its defensive shape either. Alas, Shotton stayed on and got himself sent off in injury time to give the manager an even bigger selection headache next week. To be fair to Shotton, while his first booking was stupid, the one that earned him an early bath was ridiculous as Fabian Delph tripped over himself/dived. Unfortunately as it was a second yellow, we’ll be unable to get it rescinded.

As I say though, a point is not to be sniffed at and it is certainly a result many would have taken at kick off. With this latest shutout, Stoke now hold the most amount of clean sheets in the top flight. When you think of the injuries and lack of options we have had, that accolade is all the more impressive, though perhaps not as impressive as me being able to write nearly 500 words on this latest war of attrition.

The Britannia beckons next week though with the visit of the blue half of Merseyside and hopefully, despite Everton being a very tidy outfit, the home advantage will see us seize the initiative and get on the front foot to keep this unbeaten run going.

Vis Unita Fortior

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