Leeds came very close to taking all three points from our visit to Aston Villa, but had to settle for a point after their late equaliser. But in all honesty that was a fair result over the whole ninety minutes.

Daniel Farke made three changes from our last league game, all of which were injury related. Okafor was out after pulling up in the cup tie at Birmingham , but Struijk and Stach returned after their own spells on the sidelines. The line-up had a defensive look, with something like a 3-5-1-1 formation, including Ampadu and Gruev as two holding midfield players and Justin in central defence.

But we were the side to show far more adventure in a first half that took a while to get going as a spectacle after a cagey start. Despite their lofty league position, Villa have run into a difficult spell of late, and the atmosphere round the stadium started to get rather edgy as their poor form continued.

Calvert-Lewin had an early shot blocked and a few minutes later he was put through on goal by an excellent ball from Bogle, only for Martinez to come quickly off his line to save at our striker’s feet. Unfortunately the ball went wide after bouncing back off Calvert-Lewin, but we took the lead on 31 minutes, after Watkins had tracked back, but only to give away a free kick some 30 yards out.

Given the distance from goal Villa only put up a one man wall and Martinez went over to the far left side of his goal, clearly expecting a cross. But Stach saw the opportunity to catch him out and went for goal instead, and got so much power on the shot that the Villa keeper had no chance to get across to keep it out.

Soon after we were nearly two in front, as Calvert-Lewin found his way blocked inside the penalty area but rolled the ball back for Gruev, whose shot went only just wide. More than a few of the Villa fans were getting so disgruntled by their side’s performance that they decided to go for a very early half time pint, but only to miss their team’s best moments of the first half.

A through ball put Watkins through on goal on the edge of the area, with time to take a touch and then shoot. But he produced the first time finish of a striker lacking confidence, and Darlow got down for an easy save, though in any case Watkins might have been offside if he had scored.

Then just before the break Onana’s header was saved by Darlow, and luckily the rebound fell just behind Watkins, who couldn’t adjust his position fast enough to get to it before Darlow could knock the ball away from him. Rodon was then on hand to clear the ball into the stand. None of which spared the home side from being booed off by their own fans at half time.

At half-time Gudmundsson was replaced by Bijol, with Justin moving across to left back. The Swede had been unwell during the latter part of the week, and he had certainly looked a little off the pace in the first half. Bijol was to play his part in a fine rearguard action as Villa had more and more of the game as the second half went on, but they still seemed short of ideas until the latter stages.

Darlow had to make a fine save from Onana at the start of the second period, but we had a scare midway through the half. Buendia shot from distance and it cannoned off the post and into the path of Watkins, who then rolled the ball into the empty net. But we were saved by the linesman’s flag, and the offside decision was confirmed by VAR.

On 73 minutes Farke opted to relieve the growing pressure on our back line by making a positive change, sending on Nmecha in place of Aaronson, as DCL was starting to get a bit isolated up front. And the change nearly brought us the second goal which would have sealed the game.

Bogle came down the right and sent over a wonderful cross, which was met by Nmecha’s diving header. But unfortunately the German was fully on the stretch to get to it so couldn’t direct the ball where he wanted, and it was too close to the advancing Martinez. Our final change was to send Longstaff on for Stach, who was starting to run out of puff in this early stage of his comeback.

But it was Villa’s second half changes which perhaps had the bigger impact on the latter stages of the game, as with Barkley, Sancho and Abraham on the field they began to look far more threatening. And at times our defending began to look a little desperate, with both Bogle and Gruev booked for fairly crude last ditch challenges.

Rogers seemed especially aggrieved by Gruev’s late ‘tackle’ as he sped down the wing, and Ampadu had to step in and usher him away when he sought to go and have a word with the Bulgarian. I would have unsportingly stood aside and given Villa’s best player the chance to do something stupid and get himself sent off.

By now I was nervously glancing at the stadium clock every few minutes as Villa forced a series of corners, with Tyrone Mings going forward for every one to offer an extra aerial threat. But we seemed to be coping well with the danger, until the home side finally broke our resistance in the 88th minute.

From yet another corner Rogers climbed highest at the far post to send the ball back across goal, where it came off Abrahams’ thigh, at just the right height to clear Calvert-Lewin on the goal line and loop under the bar. It was either a magnificent touch from the striker or a fluke, but it was yet another late goal conceded, when we already led the Premier League for that unfortunate statistic.

We still had five minutes of injury time to survive (there had been a couple of injury breaks plus Darlow being booked for time wasting) but although Villa looked the more likely side to snatch a late winner, we managed to hold on without too many more alarms.

This was one of those games when I would have settled for a point before the start, but ultimately I was disappointed we didn’t win because the equaliser came so late. But to draw away from home against the team third in the table still has to be regarded as a good result, and it kept the all important gap over third bottom at six points.

We’ll be keeping an eye on a couple of other results today, but if we keep playing like this there is no way we will be occupying one of the relegation places at the end of the season.

Reuters