McLeish down on his luck

The Magpies' Senegalese strike duo of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse did the damage at St James' Park, with the latter netting a second half winner on his debut.

Robbie Keane had levelled for Villa on the stroke of half-time, but they could easily have been out of sight by that point.

McLeish admits as much, with the Scot of the opinion that his side could have secured a comfortable success on another day - with Darren Bent enduring a tough afternoon in front of goal.

"I'm disappointed we never won," he told Sky Sports.

"We made about five chances and they all fell to our top man and our top marksman - Benty.

Improve

"I think we had one or two others near the end. (Tim) Krul was in great form and he has made some point-blank saves. On another day Benty would have had a hat-trick. But I'm really pleased with the way we played.

"There are certain moments that we have got to improve. We are still shooting ourselves in the foot at certain times. I didn't think it was a free-kick that led to the Newcastle winning goal."

McLeish feels Villa need to cut out costly errors at the back if they are to start climbing the table, with Cisse's winner highlighting their defensive frailties once again.

"We have got to try and cut out the cross and deal with it when it comes into the middle," he said.

"We got our positioning a little bit lopsided and, to be fair to Cisse, it's a fantastic finish."