Aaron Tshibola headed an 89th-minute equaliser as Aston Villa snatched a 1-1 draw with Newcastle in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday.

The summer signing from Reading headed home Jordan Ayew’s corner late on at Villa Park to deny Newcastle a victory they thought they had earned through Tommy Elphick’s first-half own goal.

Newcastle dominated much of the game and saw Dwight Gayle and Mohamed Diame spurn great chances to increase their lead before Villa rallied in the late stages.

Mile Jedinak had a goal disallowed and Ayew hit the post before Tshibola struck to deny Newcastle the chance to move up to third in the table.

Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo confirmed before the game that Jack Grealish had been suspended by the club for this match for off-field misdemeanours, while he handed a first start to summer signing Albert Adomah.

Rafa Benitez made three changes, bringing in DeAndre Yedlin, Yoan Gouffran and former Villa player Ciaran Clark and his team was utterly dominant throughout the first half.

They almost opened the scoring when Elphick’s loose header presented Matt Ritchie with a close-range opportunity in the 25th minute but Pierluigi Gollini was on hand to make a block before Diame shot wastefully over the bar.

And three minutes later they took a deserved lead, but it was handed to them by hapless Villa captain Elphick.

Full-back Yedlin found space on the right and delivered a fine low cross, which Elphick - evidently worried about the presence of Gayle behind him in the six-yard-box - steered past his own goalkeeper.

Gayle was denied by a brilliant late tackle from Nathan Baker on 34 minutes and should have got on the scoresheet two minutes later when Elphick made yet another mistake. The Villa defender dawdled on the ball on the edge of his area and presented it to
the Newcastle striker, who ran through one-on-one with the goalkeeper but shot straight at Gollini.

A chorus of boos greeted the home players as they went off at half-time and Di Matteo responded by sending on Tshibola and then Rudy Gestede 15 minutes after the interval.

Newcastle should have doubled their lead through Diame on 64 minutes when Jonjo Shelvey teed up his team-mate to shoot from eight yards and he skewed just wide when he should have scored.

Villa thought they had found an unlikely equaliser when Jedinak headed in Ayew’s free-kick, but it was correctly ruled out for offside - and the noise level inside Villa Park rose further when Ayew brilliantly beat two defenders and curled in a fine shot from the edge of the area which rattled the post with Matz Sels beaten.

That sparked a Villa rally in the closing stages and their equaliser came from a late corner when Ayew curled to the far post and Tshibola beat Isaac Hayden to the ball to head down and in off the post.

Villa celebrated a late point, but remain 17th with nine points from nine matches while Newcastle, who remain fifth, will rue two dropped points in their hunt for promotion.