Aston Villa dropped two points at home after a 1-1 draw with fellow unbeaten side Newcastle United.
It was Villa fan and in-form striker Gabriel Agbonlahor who opened the scoring after 13 minutes with his third goal in four games, holding off Fabricio Coloccini before slotting home a low effort past Tim Krul.
However, Agbonlahor’s goal was insufficient as Newcastle’s own in-form striker Leon Best secured his fifth goal in six league outings on 57 minutes. Moments earlier, Shay Given had denied Best with a header, only for Best to tap the ball home from the rebound.
It was arguably Villa who should have been happier with the point given a poor second half, where Darren Bent, usually Villa’s talisman, against struggled for form, appearing mostly as a passenger in a Villa side minus the injured Emile Heskey.
Barry Bannan was the player who was to take Heskey’s shirt, slotting into a formation that seemed to play like a 4-4-2 rather than the 4-2-3-1 formation that was detailed on Villa’s team sheet. Bannan seemed the ideal choice after an audacious volleyed attempt at goal flashed wide of Tim Krul’s goal.
Bent has two chances, both of which he shunned, firstly after Stiliyan Petrov had cut the ball back for him on 25 minutes and then, later in the game, lobbing the ball just wide of the left post after being put through one-on-one with Newcastle’s Tim Krul.
It may have been a different result for Villa has Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye found his shooting boots, as he almost pulled the game back to 1-1 before Leon Best scored, and then again three minutes from time when he struck an effort that was all but in barring the heroics of Shay Given.
Villa were put under pressure consistently by a Newcastle team seemingly fired up after a less than excellent performance vs QPR at Loftus Road. In fact, it was largely down to the defensive ability of James Collins that Newcastle hadn’t secured a lead after early pressure from the Magpies.
Newcastle continued to pressure by putting balls in the Villa box, and it was Stephen Taylor who was denied by Shay Given after an excellent corner delivered by Yohan Cabaye.
Villa did well early in the second half with Agbonlahor again providing the danger after receiving a ball from Bent, holding off Danny Simpson, only to fire wide of the post.
Reaction
It was a largely disappointing afternoon for McLeish’s men with an early start seemingly plotting the course for an attacking Villa display, with Gabby Agbonlahor again displaying why he is vying to be the main striker for the club. However, due to a combination of errors from some Villa players, and some individual brilliance from Newcastle’s Man of the Match Yohan Cabaye, it was not to be Villa’s day.
Whilst early on a draw might well have been seen as a poor result after Agbonlahor’s opener, it was Villa who ended up fortunate to take away a point after continued pressure from Alan Pardew’s unbeaten side.
The main questions now are a) What do Villa need to do to win their next game? and b) Does McLeish need to contemplate the dropping of star striker Darren Bent due to some recent poor performances?
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