Managers Newcastle v Villa Reactions

Martin O’Neill’s post match reaction following the 0-0 against Newcastle:

‘I thought we did enough to merit a win. I’m actually disappointed to come away with just a point and the players are disappointed too. There was a real tempo to our game today and I thought the players were really up for it. I thought we were excellent and I genuinely think we should have won the game. If you look at the balance of play, we definitely shaded it.’

‘We had the better of what few chances there were. Martin Laursen, who was fantastic at the back, probably should have scored in the first-half and was unlucky with his header. In the second-half Reo-Coker looked like he’d won it for us with that incredible run and shot. I thought it was in but the keeper made a fantastic save. We’ve got one point now and we’re up and running, but I’m convinced we can and will get better. Today was very encouraging.’

Newcastle’s boss Sam Allardyce said:

‘It was frustrating in the end that we failed to break down a very solid defence. All we needed was to pull something out of the bag to win the game 1-0. We haven’t quite managed that but it was very important to keep a clean sheet and that makes me very happy. We always kept ourselves positive and tried to win the game. We have still got a lot of good players to come back. We have got four points from our first two games but we still have a way to go.’