Two late goals by Stoke ensured a dramatic 2-2 scoreline against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Villa were already leading from 1-0 Stiliyan Petrov's first half strike when their advantage was doubled with 11 minutes remaining through a John Carew volley.

The points seemed secure for the home side as they looked to consolidate their Champions League placing ahead of Arsenal.

But Stoke grabbed a valuable point in their battle to avoid the drop starting with Ryan Shawcross reducing the arrears on 87 minutes.

Incredibly the battling visitors drew level in injury time as substitute Glenn Whelan hit home a loose ball.

Potters boss Tony Pulis praised his sides never say die attitude.

"Our lads were absolutely fantastic today, they showed a tremendous attitude and in the end that is what got us that point," he told Stoke City World.

"The first half performance was extremely poor, and I have to take full responsibility for that because I thought I would try and do something a little bit different.

"I came to play with three forwards to push everyone in and try to get the ball forward. I wanted to try and keep Villa in their own half as much as we could to get up against Young and Milner, but that never happened and it went totally the wrong way.

"At times it didn't look like we could get out of our own half, when that happens you just hope you can keep it level and change things around at half time. But they get the goal and then all of a sudden we have a bit of a mountain to climb.

"But today I have to take my hat off to the players because they went back out there when they could have crumbled and really gave it a go against an extremely good side, and in the end they got what I think they deserved."

"Once we got the first, they looked shaky and Glenn took a chance right at the death after hitting the post and it flies in.

"We deserve that little bit of luck especially after what happened last weekend. It's a huge point for us and now we look forward to the Bolton game on Wednesday for another massive game."