Aston Villa held their North-East counterparts to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Aston Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo has told the club’s official website that his side’s team spirit was great to see in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle United.
A tight encounter at Villa Park looked set to be decided by Tommy Elphick’s first-half own goal.
But Aaron Tshibola, in his first appearance in over a month, came off the bench to rescue a point for Aston Villa with a late header which denied the Magpies.
Unlike the Villans, Newcastle have adapted well to life in the Championship following their relegation last term, and had won five of their eight games before yesterday.
And Di Matteo enthused to Aston Villa’s website about the character shown by his boys to come back into the game despite United’s quality.
“It was great to see the spirit from the team today – coming back from one-down to earn a draw against a very good Newcastle team that is defensively very solid.”
Di Matteo and co have now dropped 13 points since their last and only Championship win, which came way back on August 13.
Aston Villa have had seven games since – six of which ended in draws – and it’s getting very worrying down in the West Midlands.
They could, and definitely should, be doing a lot better than they are, with Villa 17th in the table and three points above the drop zone.
Aston Villa’s Jordan Ayew
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