In his interview after the game, Alan Pardew said:
“I can’t say that we deserved to win and I could argue that Villa deserved to win, but I will take the draw. I thought we were a bit funny today. For us, we lacked a bit of discipline in areas and our set-plays were awful.
“It was a really frustrating game from a coaching point of view. There was lots of excitement and a fantastic wonder goal for us, with chances at both ends. I think we had the bulk of the play and we were better in the second half, but they still had chances to have won it themselves.
“Fair play to Paul and his team. I don’t think we will come across many teams that work as hard as them as they really worked hard.”