Pictures and analysis of Aston Villa 1 Fulham 1

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert is right about the point his team earned against Fulham.

It could prove massive in the context of a relegation scrap which has engulfed any number of nervous rivals.

But the sense of a missed opportunity on Saturday pervaded the stadium as anxious Villa fans headed for the exits bracing themselves for a survival battle which looks ever more likely to go to the wire.

It is impossible to forecast what lies ahead for the contenders, even moreso now that third-bottom Wigan have reached an FA Cup final which may either inspire or distract an already unpredictable team from their own league emergency.

But while Lambert was right to greet this point as "massive" – because every point is at this stage of the season – Villa will know a little more sharpness in front of goal could have enabled them to take a huge leap forward.

Next weekend could be particularly difficult for Villa to cope with psychologically.

Just above them Stoke and Norwich meet at the Britannia, for example, which guarantees the battle for survival taking some kind of a twist one way or the other. And Wigan now face away games at Manchester City and West Ham before Villa play again.

They must handle whatever pressures emerge from those games knowing they are more than likely to finish up empty-handed at Old Trafford a week tonight.

Which brings into sharpening focus the two fixtures that follow, against Sunderland and Norwich, which are already screaming out their significance to an increasingly nervous Villa Park. The scale of the crisis still facing Lambert's team after such an encouraging burst of form lately is surprising.

But the fact is that before winning four games in the seven which preceded this fixture, Villa had only won four in the previous 35 – and that's why they are still in an almighty battle to save their skins.

Amid all the tension, then, it should be comforting to see a manager indulging one of the mainstays of his profession – showing faith in his players.

Lambert has pursued that policy all season, even when the critics have been raging about the inevitable errors of such a naive team, but Villa are reaping a benefit now with the improving form, particularly of their young defenders, at this crunch stage of the campaign.

Nathan Baker, continuing to keep out Ciaran Clark, was outstanding against Fulham showing an old-fashioned relish for the nuts and bolts of defending – blocking, tackling, heading it clear – that will be invaluable to his team.

It would have been easy for Lambert to take Baker out of the firing line after his youthful indiscretion against Luis Suarez recently but he has stuck by the Worcester-born 21-year-old and reaped a huge reward.

There have been many times this season when Joe Bennett's credibility as a Premier League left-back have been under a critical scrutiny made even more harsh while the neglected Stephen Warnock languished in the background.

Warnock has gone and still Lambert has kept faith with Bennett and a player who even Middlesbrough fans were doubting could make the leap asked of him this season has made an impressive recovery from those fragile performances against Bradford.

And you just know that Lambert will offer the same soft counsel and encouragement this week to a distraught Fabian Delph.

Villa were on course for three points as the game turned on the hour, partly because of a reminder from Charles N'Zogbia of his silken qualities but also because one of the leakiest and previously fragile defences in the Premier League is neither any more.

Villa look as if they can sustain pressure now and not even opposition corners trouble them any more.

N'Zogbia had clipped a gorgeous finish wide of Mark Schwarzer in the 55th minute at which point Villa should have maybe had the gamne sewn up.

Christian Benteke and N'Zogbia had both missed with first-half opportunities which they would be backed to take on another day.

But a 66th minute corner driven with – it must be noted – wicked curl and swerve by Bryan Ruiz had Delph stretching at the near post for a clearing header which became the perfect flick into the opposite corner.

Delph, perhaps still troubled by his gaffe, later blazed wildly over the bar when he was presented with Villa's best chance for a winner.

Lambert, though, will spend the week rebuilding the young midfielder's dented confidence because Villa have no other options – and he knows no other way to engage the battle.

By Martin Swain