Marshall produced two superb saves in the second half at the Cardiff City Stadium, including an incredible reaction stop in injury time to deny Andreas Weimann, the Scot twisting his body to somehow tip the close-range effort up and over the crossbar.
It denied Villa what would have been a huge three points in their battle to avoid relegation, with Lambert's side currently in 11th place in the Premier League table, four points clear of the bottom three.
Lambert, who knows Marshall from their time at Celtic, was full of praise for the 28-year-old.
"'Marshy', who I know from Celtic, has kept them in it," he said.
"He's made two world-class saves, especially the one at the end.
"In the second half we were fantastic, and I thought there was only one team likely to win it.
"Leo (Bacuna) should have scored, Gabby (Agbonlahor) should have scored and the two saves 'Marshy' had has kept them in it.
"He's played against Barcelona in the Nou Camp and was world class that night. You're talking about parking the bus, we parked everything that night.
"Then we played against Rangers on the Sunday and he was the same then.
"You always knew he had the potential. I think he lost his way a little bit then started to pick up again and he had a really good game."
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