Please note this was written by Aidan Jones not Matt Lynch
Report
Over £125 million was out on show this evening as Aston Villa welcomed Newcastle United to Villa Park as Di Matteo’s men looked to pick up three vital points to keep up their hopes of returning to the top-flight at the first time of asking.
Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez brought his side to the Midlands, who had won their last three on the road.
The game started brightly, both sides wanting to attack, and the first shot of the game came for the home side as Jonathan Kodjia’s low effort was smothered by Matz Sels in the Newcastle goal.
The first goal came in the 28th minute, a cross came in and went into the back of the net off Villa captain Tommy Elphick who was stood in the wrong place at the wrong time and could do nothing about it.
Other chances in the first half from Gayle for the away side which he put over and also Diame who turned and put his close effort over the crossbar.
A quiet start to the second half, but had its first bit of action when Jonjo Shelvey brought Pierluigi Gollini into a save in the 53rd minute. Just ten minutes after it was again the away side looking to score, as a low cross came in for Shelvey to shoot just wide of the mark.
After that, it was all for the home side as Villa thought that they had levelled in the 67th minute, as a wide free kick was curled in by Ayew and headed home by Mile Jerdinak but was ruled out by the assistant’s flag.
In the 71st minute, the home side threatened again with an ambitious shot from long range by Ayew which hit the far post and out for a goal kick. Tshibola went down under a challenge in the penalty area but referee Chris Kavanagh brandished a yellow card for the former reading man for simulation. The home side again went in search of an equaliser again when one corner got deflected for a second, which was whipped in by Ayew which swung in and at the back post was Aaron Tshibola to tap it home to pull level with four of the ninety minutes to go. That goal really put off the visitors as Aston Villa went in search of a winner with two attempts being blocked for corners.
The game finished 1-1 with the spoils being shared, that equaliser for Villa could be extremely vital as they still aim to finish somewhere in the top 6 of the league table.
Press conferences
Di Matteo:
We put Newcastle under a lot of pressure in the second half, and certainly in the last half an hour when we hit the woodwork again and we really could have gone on to win the game.
We showed that we could really turn the game around, form being 1-0 down in the first half we looked to push on and when we got the equaliser we tried to push on for more.
Benitez:
We made some mistakes defending in the second half, which allowed them to stay in the game.
We had a lot of chances in the game which could have finished the match but we did not take them. We have to show teams that we are consistent, today we created a lot of chances which is what we were looking for which is a positive out of the game.
Teams:
Aston Villa – Gollini (GK), Baker (Tshibola 45), Elphick (c), Bacuna, Ayew, Chester, Westwood (Hepburn – Murphy 85), Amavi, Jerdinak, Kodjia, Adomah (Gestede 62)
Subs not used: Bunn (GK), Richards, Hutton, Cissoko
Newcastle – Sels (GK), Clark, Dummett, Lascelles (c), Gayle (Mitrovic 79), Ritchie, Shelvey, Hayden, Diame, gouffran, Yedlin (Tiote 74)
Subs not used: Darlow (GK), Hanley, Lazaar, Perez, Atsu
Yellow cards
Aston Villa – Baker, Chester, Tshibola
Newcastle: Shelvey,
