McLeish salutes Dunne impact

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish lauded the performance of captain Richard Dunne in his team’s 0-0 draw at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

The centre-back made his first appearance since February 12, returning from a broken collarbone to help his side to the scoreless draw at the Hawthorns.

Under-fire McLeish was delighted with Dunne’s performance as Villa stayed three points clear of the relegation zone.

“Richard is a leader, a leader by example. We took a calculated gamble. Richard told me if I needed him, he was good to go,” Dunne said.

“I said ‘your presence would be wonderful’ and so it proved because he produced a wonderful performance today.

“He headed everything, he read the play, he calmed the players down. It was a real top performance.”

In an entertaining encounter, both teams had penalty shouts turned down, with West Brom denied what appeared to be a clear-cut spot-kick when Alan Hutton handled Liam Ridgewell’s goal-bound effort.

McLeish compared it to Chris Brunt’s handball in the first half, and said he was disappointed a penalty was not awarded to his side for a separate incident late in the match.

“Hutton did (appear to handle) but I thought it was very similar to Chris Brunt handling. If Hutton is a penalty, then Brunt’s is a penalty,” McLeish said.

“Then we had a better shout with five minutes to go when Jonas Olsson slid along the ground and dragged the ball with his arm when Ciaran Clark’s shot was going in the bottom corner.

“We felt a bit disappointed we didn’t get that decision.”

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson said he was thrilled the club were guaranteed to finish above their Midlands rivals for the first time in 33 years.

“I’m happy enough with a point, I’m happy with another clean sheet, our 10th of the season, which is very good considering how difficult we found getting clean sheets last season,” Hodgson said.

“I’m also glad to confirm – for the first time in goodness knows how many years – we’ve finished above Aston Villa in the table so it’s not been a bad day.

“It would have been a wonderful day if we’d won it, but I mustn’t be too greedy and I’ll save a victory over Villa for next season.”