Non-thriller at the Villa! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle.

Newcastle succumbed to defeat at Villa Park this afternoon in a match that saw Aston Villa ease their relegation fears and move further away from the dreaded drop zone.

A very thin on the ground Newcastle United was on show for all to see as absences through suspension and injury took their toll and forced Alan Pardew into handing Nile Ranger his first Premier League start whilst Fabricio Coloccini was moved into a more advanced role in midfield. In contrast, Villa's full strength squad enabled their under-pressure manager, Gerard Houllier, to take his pick of who to play.

You could tell that the home fans were feeling anxious as you could hear a pin drop in the Villa end at times. Newcastle capitalised on that and started brightly with debutant Nile Ranger proving to be a handful for Richard Dunne and James Collins in the Villa defence. In fact Ranger had a couple of half chances which he could have done better with, but inbetween those chances Joey Barton should have given Newcastle the lead.

Some fine work down the left from Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique allowed the Spaniard to cross into the box from the byline. The cross cleared everyone in the middle of the box but managed to find an onrushing Joey Barton at the back post who headed the ball goalwards only to see his effort spoon harmlessly over the bar.

The game ebbed and flowed with neither side really being on top. Mike Williamson received a booking for cleaning out Gabby Agbonlahor, and seconds Joey Barton gave away a free-kick after tripping Ashley Young. It was from that free-kick that the home side took the lead as Young curled the ball into the box for James Collins to glance into Steve Harper's bottom right hand corner.

That goal eased the pressure on Aston Villa and they began to look more assured on the ball. Indeed the home side could have made it two had Darren Bent kept his eye on Stewart Downing's cross and had the Assistant Referee not been kind and chalked off a Darren Bent goal for offside. I've seen the replays and I'm still not convinced it was offside.

That was it for the first-half however as both sides looked that little bit off form. Newcastle never really created much and Villa looked nervous, and that theme continued in the second half.

Without creating too much themselves, Villa still had the better of the early exchanges. Steven Taylor, who had a poor game and couldn't even head the ball at one stage, flattened Darren Bent in the centre circle before flattening him again in the penalty box. Fortunately Stuart Atwell decided against awarding the penalty.

Taylor was withdrawn not long after that and was replaced with another Taylor - Ryan - as Newcastle looked to create something for the strikers who had been starved of service all afternoon as the nerves returned to the Villa Park stands.

The game just ticked along really with not much happening in front of goal for either side. There was a few tasty challenges but not much else. Ranger was replaced with Shefki Kuqi for the last ten minutes, but he was also starved of service and, as a result of that, failed to make any real impact.

Lovenkrands had about the best chance of the second-half in the final couple of minutes but he was unable to direct Danny Guthrie's deep cross towards Brad Friedel's bottom corner and the American saved comfortably.

Joey Barton had been a booking waiting to happen all afternoon as he continued from his gobbing off in the press during the week by gobbing off at the referee at every opportunity, and that booking arrived as injury time commenced. Five minutes were signalled, and despite much hiffing and puffing Newcastle were unable to create that chance or grab that equaliser.

Full-time: Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle.

We simply had too many off colour performances today. Steven Taylor was poor, as was Jose Enrique whilst Joey Barton had a stinker having been given Kevin Nolan's armband. We never really created anything today, which is why we didn't have many chances to score. We could have had the best striker in the world wearing our white away kit today, but he wouldn't have been able to do much as the service just wasn't there.

Aston Villa: Brad Friedel, Kyle Walker, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Luke Young, Stewart Downing, Stiliyan Petrov, Jean Makoun, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Darren Bent.

Subs: Andy Marshall, Ciaran Clark, Carlos Cuellar, Nigel Reo-Coker, Robert Pires, Marc Albrighton, Emile Heskey.

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Steven Taylor, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Nile Ranger, Peter Lovenkrands.

Subs: Tim Krul, Shane Ferguson, James Tavernier, Michael Richardson, Ryan Taylor, Ryan Donaldson, Shefki Kuqi.

Referee: Stuart Atwell.

Attendance: 37,090.