Pardew pleased with point

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was impressed by his team’s performance after they recorded a 1-1 draw away to Aston Villa on Saturday.

Gabriel Agbonlahor had put the hosts ahead in the 13th minute at Villa Park, but Leon Best struck an equaliser just before the hour mark to ensure Newcastle secured a share of the spoils.

Pardew commended the efforts of his players, picking out midfield duo Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote for special praise.

“I was really buoyed by our performance because when you come to Villa, you don’t expect to control the game for as long as we did,” Pardew said.

“We got a grip of the central area of the pitch and Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote were outstanding.”

“If we can get Cabaye on the ball, you would pay good money to watch him.”

“He was beautiful today and deserved a goal and it was a fantastic save by Shay Given that kept him out.”

“But I’ve got to be really pleased to get a draw here and with the performance we gave, and I felt we perhaps deserved the win.”

“I thought we looked a threat the whole game and we created great chances and it bodes well for us going forward.”

Villa boss Alex McLeish blamed his team’s struggles on injuries to Stiliyan Petrov and Stephen Warnock, while also acknowledging striker Darren Bent passed up at least one good chance to win the match.

“We could have been better in the final third,” McLeish said.

“We were a bit careless and we’ve got to be more ruthless in those situations.”

“Benty had a right good chance to make it 2-0 and it is not like him to miss those chances but he is only human.”

“We started in a blistering way. There was a good feeling after the first goal and we were opening them up and looked dangerous.”

“Then we had a couple of problems with Petrov and Warnock and we lost a bit of momentum with these injuries.”