Aston Villa 1-1 Swansea City match report Saturday 28th December 2013

Aston Villa’s barren spell finally came to an end after they picked up their first point in five matches against a Swansea City side which totally dominated the match.

Gabriel Agbonlahor’s seventh minute strike was cancelled out by Roland Lamah’s 36^th minute reply and despite having 73% possession, the Swans just could not find the final killer strike – a point reflected on afterwards by manager Michael Laudrup.

“We lost two points as we should have scored more goals with all the possession we had,” he said.

The home team netted first as striker Andreas Weimann burst through the centre of the park and slotted a pinpoint pass through the Swansea defence ball to strike partner Gabriel Agbonlahor 35 yards from goal. The Villa captain drove forward and tucked the ball through the legs of Swansea keeper Gerhard Tremmel to score Villa's first goal in front of the home fans since November 9th.

However as soon as that goal went in Swansea slowly began to claw their way back into the match  and completely dominated the rest of the first half, Ben Davies heading over when it looked easier to score from six yards out. Influential midfielder Jonjo Shelvey ran the show for the visitors and the former Liverpool midfielder was instrumental in the equaliser on 36 minutes when he swung a fine pass to the left hand side of the box. Returning wide man Pablo Hernandez beat Villa defender Matthew Lowton and floated a fine cross to the far post where Roland Lamah rose highest to nod in his first goal for the Swans.

From then on in it was the team from Wales who dominated the game with Shelvey and partner Jonathan De Guzman in control of the midfield area but despite all the possession they couldn't find a winner and both teams were both happy to settle for a point each as the clock ticked down.

Both managers rued the loss of important players and Swans boss Laudrup said he couldn’t rule out delving into the upcoming January transfer market with star striker Michu out for a long spell with injury and his team not scoring enough goals in recent matches.

Villa manager Paul Lambert remained optimistic as ever about his team’s performance and praised their work rate. He said his problems weren’t helped by the loss of the ‘spine’ of his team thanks to injuries to Christian Benteke, Ron Vlaar and Jores Okore.

When asked about the recent managerial sackings in the Premiership Lambert said he did not feel secure in his job despite having reassurances from owner Randy Lerner. “We are a million miles from where I want to be but I spoke to Randy last night and he supports what I am trying to do,” he said.