Newcastle centre back Ciaran Clark believes the 1-1 draw against Aston Villa on Saturday was a fair reflection of the match despite the Magpies having a number of chances to finish the game off.
Striker Dwight Gayle missed a one on one opportunity in the first half which would have put Newcastle 2-0 up while Mohamed Diame also had a game to forget in front of goal but Clark believes the pressure that Villa managed in the latter part of the game meant that a draw was a creditable result at Villa Park. He told the Shields Gazette:
“Overall, it’s probably a fair result. We controlled the game first half with the tempo, but second half we got a bit sloppy. We’ll look at that, and hopefully we can improve on that in the games we’ve got this week.”
Some saw he substitution of Cheick Tiote for the injured DeAndre Yedlin as the turning point in the match. Whilst Isaac Hayden had to play in an unfamiliar right back role, Tiote was playing in his first match of the campaign after moves to Olympiakos and Galatasaray fell through, and he looked well off the pace allowing Villa a foothold in the match.
