Alex McLeish is watching his players learn his system, and little by little they are getting it. However, there is still a long way to go. Villa played a Newcastle team that seems comfortable in Alan Pardew's system and it was a tough test.
Early warning for Villa came when Cabaye put a shot narrowly wide and Warnock cleared a cross that Demba Ba was ready for. Both chances should have been avoided with more pressure on the ball. Alex needs to address this first.
After 10 minutes of total dominance by the visitors, Villa moved ahead. Hutton's cross in was too tall, but the ball made its way toward Delph, who wanted to shoot. However, Bannan took the ball off him. As soon as the little Scotsman got the ball, you felt something good might happen. He made a jinking move to the left wing and sent a cross in. AGBONLAHOR fought off Culocini and slotted the ball under Krul, in the United goal.
Bannan had an exquisite volley just go wide and at the other end. Best twice got through only to see the flag go up both times as he was denied by Given and the post.
The second thing AM must address is passing. When Villa have possession and are passing they look good, but too many passes are going astray and too many are turning possession into a dangerous counter attack.
Number 3 on my list to the manager is when you can and can't play out of defence. Too many times Villa was happy to hoist clearances into anywhere, when a couple of well placed passes would suffice.
Villa should have made it 2 when a well placed pass found Petrov whose pass found Bent flat footed and he put his shot wide; more about that one later in this report.
Steven Taylor forced a great save from Given as Newcastle had Villa reeling at the end of the half.
Gabby had a great chance to put Villa 2 up with a shot that fizzed past the post after good work from Hutton and a tight pass from N'Zogbia; it started to seem like Villa had strangle hold on the game.
Newcastle began to get back into it and Villa finally wilted as the rain started to get heavy. Cabaye, the Toon's most dangerous player, hit a stunning shot that rattled the crossbar.
An innocuous cross from the left found BEST, whose header was saved by Given, but he was able to prod the rebound in off the Villa keepers leg. Dunne had taken his eye off the forward and allowed him the room.
N'Zogbia was having a disappointing game. He still seems to be nervy on the ball and when he had the ball 20-25 yards from goal in the middle of the field, he brought up lesson number 4 for big Eck to drum into Villa. Be assertive and believe in your ability. Charles had a wingers dream! One on one with a centre half, driving into the area! At the last second, the former Newcastle man switched a pass to Gabby on the left wing. Only an hour earlier, football fans had watched Arsenal's Theo Walcott run at Scott Dann and get a free kick. Centre halves hate dealing with wingers! This lesson also applies to Petrov who should have shot instead of passing to Bent in the first half. Also, both of these players, tended to make runs into trouble earlier into the game. N'Zogbia's was on the left wing in the first half, instead of cutting outside and crossing, he went inside and had to deal with two defenders. Petrov, also in the first half, broke out of defence, got away from his man and then went right, straight into a United player. Why he turned I don't know, however it put Villa under undue pressure.
Bent was gifted a chance from Taylor and he scooped his shot too low, too slow and not even on target and was fortunate to get a corner when Taylor himself recovered.
Meanwhile, Cabaye was rifling shots at Given at will and the former Geordie number one was equal to everything.
The introduction of Ireland and Albrighton didn't change much, but both did well while on the pitch and Delfouneso's late arrival saw him head a corner clear and a nice but rather aimless run down the right flank.
Overall, the defence did a nice enough job. Warnock was outstanding, Hutton, the weak link. The midfield was over-run and made too many sloppy passes. Petrov and Bannan were strong. Delph had his moments. Up front, Gabby and Bent were isolated, but again Bent was a passenger. He needs N'Zogbia to step up or he's going to have a lot of days like this one.
The difference in the sides were; Newcastle were willing to go for the 70-30 tackles, where they had almost no chance and they won a good proportion of them, which turned the game a little physical, Villa only went for 50-50 balls except for Delph, but you always expect the cards to come out when he tackles. He avoided them today, though.
Man of the match for me is a tie between Given & Warnock.