Newcastle lacked discipline needed to beat Villa - Pardew.

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew cut a frustrated figure after his side were held to a 1-1 draw by Aston Villa.

The Magpies required a spectacular 25-yard strike from Hatem Ben Arfa to rescue a point after Ciaran Clark had put the visitors ahead.

"I can't say we deserved to win and you could argue Villa did," said Pardew. "We were a bit funny, lacked discipline and our set-plays were awful.

"It was a nightmare from a coaching point of view."

Newcastle began the season well with a victory over Tottenham, but have failed to reach those heights in the subsequent fixtures against Chelsea and Villa.

"It wasn't a great day for us [the coaching team] on the sideline," added the Newcastle boss.

"It was frustrating and we were having to change the shape and formation.
Slow starters

Newcastle may have rallied to claim a point, but their failure to beat Villa ended their hopes of winning their first two home games of a season for the first time since 2000

"I don't think the officials helped us - I thought they were poor for us in particular. But fair play to Villa, I take my hat off to them because they worked so hard and can be proud of their performance."

Strikers Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba were not at their predatory best, leaving Ben Arfa to prevent Newcastle slipping to a second consecutive defeat.

And Pardew believes the French attacker has been his team's standout performer in the opening weeks of the campaign.

"Hatem has been our best player this season so far," he said.

"He's always been a massive talent in France. His technique sets him apart and he has fantastic power in his shot. He's dangerous and he's a really big player for us.

"Our front two are just a little below their best at the moment. We've tried to rest them and they'll get up to speed but Villa's diamond caused us problems.

"In the second half we got a grip and you sensed we might win it, but it wasn't to be."

From BBC Sport.

 

Agree the officials were poor. Ba held,pushed and battered but got nothing. Boatloads of fouls from behind and dirty follow throughs after the ball gone left unpunished. Hard work, graft, persistance and exuberance are one thing but dirty niggly fouls should be punished. We were poor too though. Saved by Ben Arfa's magic but then thats why you have special players - over to you Ashley.

 

Thought Clark got away with murder.

 

The officials weren't great but can't be used as an excuse for the fact that the team was utter **** today. It was a lazy and incompetent display and completely unacceptable.

 

don't buy this claptrap
the officials can seriously influence any game
the amount of fouls that went unpunished was mental
quoting the BBC they had twenty fouls against our six
they had three players booked in 3 minutes from the 90th to 93rd minutes
which meant they had free range to kick anything during the previous 89mins without too much punishment
their goalkeeper was warned about wasting time in the 35minute and continued to waste time up until the 91st eventually being booked.

Did anyone notice that the assistant ref had changed for the second half on the East stand Leazes side ???
wasn't upto speed for a couple of offside decisions, that wasn't given, non other than Kevin Friend (referee)
In front of the assistant Stephen Ireland failed to retreat from a freekick and stopped a quick freekick, yet was allowed to play on
(remember Bergkamp getting Robert sent off for similar)

don't get me started on referees

 

I think it's a case of the formation not being right

 

All of that is not why we failed to win.