O'Leary: We Weren't Clever Enough

The Magpies were forced to play for 80 minutes with just ten men following the sending off of defender Andy O'Brien for a professional foul on Darius Vassell after just ten minutes and the Villa boss was upset that the side didn't have the know-how to break down Sir Bobby Robby Robson's side after that.

"I thought we were better when we were playing against 11 men," he said after the 0-0 draw.

"Their agenda changed when they had a man sent off. They got behind the ball and we weren’t clever enough.

"You need a special guile and quality if you are really going to break somebody down and we didn't have it.

"I think a few of our players can play a lot better than they did today.

"But the bottom line is the players here have done fantastically well for me."