The ex-Villa man played the full 90 minutes as Newcastle drew 1-1 at his former club on Saturday night.
Newcastle United defender Ciaran Clark was not shy about admitting that his return to Aston Villa felt “a little bit weird” after helping the Magpies secure a 1-1 draw at his former club on Saturday night.
Clark, 26, was speaking to Sky Sports following the match at Villa Park after seeing Aaron Tshibola’s 88th-minute header cancel out Tommy Elphick’s first-half own goal to earn the hosts a share of the points.
The Republic of Ireland international previously spent 16 years at Villa from the age of 10 until this past summer, when he opted to make a fresh start in the North East after Newcastle activated a £5 million release clause in his contract.
Having featured over 150 times for the claret and blues, the London-born centre-back acknowledged that he found it strange being on the opposing side at his old stomping ground, but he was also quick to stress that any lingering sentimentality quickly went out the window once the match got underway.
“Obviously I spent a number of years here and being on the opposing side felt a little bit weird,” Clark told Sky Sports at the final whistle. “But it’s one of those things in football. I had to concentrate on the game in hand and think we all did that.
“We were maybe unfortunate not to hold out, but full credit to Villa. They came on strong during the second half.”
Clark certainly did not let his feelings for Villa get in the way of his performance as he was named man of the match by Sky Sports, having recorded a game-high 14 clearances, one tackle and an interception over the course of the 90 minutes, while also blocking a shot and completing 32 of his 38 passes.
His impressive display was ultimately not enough to earn Newcastle their sixth Championship victory of the season, however, as the hosts recovered from a terrible first-half showing to fight their way back into the match.
After Roberto Di Matteo introduced Aron Tshibola at half-time and then Rudy Gestede 15 minutes after the interval, the claret and blues soon looked the better of the two sides and eventually made the breakthrough two minutes before stoppage-time when the latter headed home a Jordan Ayew corner.
Having completely dominated the opening 45 minutes, Clark conceded that the result felt like a defeat for Rafa Benitez’s men, but the ex-Villa man added that a draw was probably a fair outcome given how well his old side played during the closing stages.
“Obviously they put Getsede up there in the end and I think we knew balls were going to come flying in,” Clark told Sky Sports. “They had a period there during the last 10 minutes where they had so many corners.
“For so long we held out, but we knew it was going to be a tough game coming down here. We know the quality they’ve got and I think the second half they were pushing on and we got a bit sloppy in our play. Maybe that was a fair result in the end.”
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