Jordan Ayew rescues potentially precious point for Aston Villa at Newcastle

Fabricio Coloccini’s first-half goal was cancelled out by a fine Jordan Ayew strike as Newcastle spurned a decent chance to make it three wins from three, putting further distance between themselves and the relegation zone.

But a rejuvenated Villa appeared in the second period and they secured a deserved draw, Ayew swivelling on the edge of the box and arrowing a drive into the top corner on the hour mark.

Newcastle looked to maintain their recent upturn in form – with two wins from two – and Villa looked doomed, rooted to the bottom of the spot with six points from 20 matches, which as a win ratio, was second to everyone.

Villa were handed a huge let-off in the 56th minute.

The Barclays Premier League’s bottom side dominated their hosts after the break, with Ayew managing to break through an impressive Magpies rearguard with a superb equaliser. But then I thought we recovered well from that and really went for the game at the end and again had two good chances with Gini [Wijnaldum] and Ayoze [Perez].

Standing water on the pitch was making life hard for both sides, but Villa coped better as the half-time whistle approached and full-back Leandro Bacuna curled an injury-time free-kick into Rob Elliot’s midriff after Idrissa Gueye had been felled by Chancel Mbemba 25 yards out.

De Jong was replaced by Perez, as Villa made their first change of the game, introducing Rudy Gestede into the fray, and the former Blackburn man nearly made an impact with his first touch, Elliot tipping his goalbound header over the crossbar from Alan Hutton’s cross. We still have games, if we play like we did in the second half we’ll get some wins.

“Three points is better, but one point is better than nothing”. We have to battle for that and when we are in a situation where we have nothing to lose, we start to play and that was the case this afternoon.

Villa boss Remi Garde was delighted with the response of his players, and particularly Ayew’s contribution to a game he will hope is a turning point for a club which will head into Christmas rooted to the foot of the table. “But it was a goal and it got the team a point”.