McLeish- Bent will regret big miss

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish admitted Darren Bent could have nightmares about the 70th-minute miss that could have cost his victory in a 2-2 draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Bent drilled a low shot straight at substitute keeper Kieran Westwood with the score at 1-1. Connor Wickham marked his full home debut by equalising after Stiliyan Petrov's early strike, then Richard Dunne's late header for Villa was cancelled out by Stephane Sessegnon at the death.

McLeish said: "Darren will be agonising over it as all good players do. He will be wondering if he should have hit it harder or higher and he's the one who will decide."

He added: "As all good players do, they look back on their good moments and the moments that didn't quite work out. There was disappointment at not scoring but there was great movement to get the chance."

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce revealed goalkeeper Simon Mignolet suffered a serious facial injury in the incident which forced his substitution just after half-time.

Mignolet was injured in an accidental clash when pushing away a corner and was taken to hospital to undergo CT scans on a badly broken nose

Bruce said: "It's badly broken - he's had CT scans to check his jaw and cheekbones and teeth. The ball was fizzed in and Simon was brave enough to go for it."

Bruce heaped praise on substitute keeper Westwood, who marked his debut by diving bravely to deny what would have been a headline-grabbing goal for Bent.

Bruce added: "Westy has saved us all. He has trained fantastically for weeks and weeks to get his chance and he has pulled off a great save."

Source: PA

Source: PA