Newcastle United vs. Aston Villa Match Report: Magpies Miss Tiote and Nolan

Last night, Aston Villa played host to Newcastle United.

In recent history, Villa Park has not been a happy hunting ground for the Magpies—particularly in the most recent game there, where an own goal to Damien Duff secured the northerners' relegation to the Championship.

Leading up to the game, things weren't looking good for the Geordies, with several key players either injured or suspended. Star defensive midfielder Cheik Tiote and captain Kevin Nolan were both absent due to suspensions, while Haten Ben Arfa, Leon Best and more recently Shola Ameobi joined the list of first-team players unavailable due to injury.

Against any other opponent, this could have been overcome, but attacking midfielder Stephen Ireland was also unavailable due to a clause in his contract that states his ineligibility to play against Aston Villa (or words to that effect).

In fact, Alan Pardew's player crisis was so severe that he moved first choice center back Fabricio Coloccini to the midfield to partner Danny Guthrie. Despite the return of Jose Enrique, it's always going to be difficult to find goals when there are four attacking players on the field.

But to Newcastle's credit, they began the game on an optimistic note.

Joey Barton and Jonas Gutierrez heralded their intentions early by repeatedly lobbing the ball into the box for Nile Ranger, making his debut appearance, and Peter Lovenkrands to try and run onto.

However, the Aston Villa defenders did well to ride out the early wave of momentum, and then began to create one of their own. Newcastle's midfield line was held back very deep, so while the Villa players had room to move forwards largely unmolested, things got fairly congested closer to their attacking third, making outright opportunities hard to come by.

But one was created off a free kick when Joey Barton tripped a player outside the penalty area. The resultant kick saw a James Collins header beat Steve Harper and land in the back of the net.

There wasn't much that could have been done about it; he was marked well enough, but Danny Simpson couldn't quite get up and block the header.

The rest of the first half was a fairly even affair, shown by no side really having any territorial advantage. The only real chance had by anyone was dismissed with Darren Bent flagged for offside.

Come the second, it was Villa who did more to chase the second goal, by pushing the ball wider and making more runs into the box. For their efforts, they were arguably unlucky to not be gifted a penalty after Steven Taylor shouldered Darren Bent off the ball perhaps too enthusiastically

Recognizing that his side was gaining a shift of momentum, Gerard Houllier brought on Nigel Reo-Cocker for Jean Makoun, pushing Villa further forwards and edging slightly closer to a more secure buffer.

Despite this, Newcastle managed to hang on. Having a top defender placed in the midfield didn't hurt things at the back, but the Magpies struggled to go forwards without Nolan bringing in more options up front and without Tiote getting forwards.

To try and create more opportunities, Steven Taylor was substituted for brother Ryan, who's much more of an asset on attack, particularly come set pieces.

In the 90th minute, as Taylor stood over the ball for an attacking free kick, Shefki Kuqi was finally brought on for Nile Ranger.

For the five minutes of stoppage time, Villa began to pull back as Newcastle attacked harder with nothing left to lose, which is what they should have been doing 20 minutes previous. Despite a few late corners and another Ryan Taylor free kick sailing narrowly over the crossbar, Brad Friedl was never really tested.

In the end, Aston Villa walked out deserved 1-0 winners.

The main thing which cost Newcastle the game was the lack of options going forwards. By almost exclusively using the wingers for attacking channels, the strikers had to get wider to receive the ball, which made things easier for the Villa defenders to get goalside of them.

Nile Ranger was disappointing, but in fairness it was only his first start and he, like Lovenkrands, suffered from the lack of feeders.

Things will improve significantly for United next week, with the return of Chiek Tiote from suspension and Stephen Ireland's availability against Manchester United.

Despite the Reds sitting comfortably at the top of the table, their away form has been rather dire so the Magpies will be optimistic about their chances.

Meanwhile, the trip to Bloomfield Road shortly after will see the return of Kevin Nolan against struggling Blackpool.

Finally, the visit to Anfield directly after the Blackpool fixture will become an even more anticipated affair, not only because of the clash with Andy Carroll, but also for the eagerly awaited return of Hatem Ben Arfa.