Paul Lambert's Aston Villa were unable to claim all three points when his former club Norwich City visited Villa Park this afternoon.
Lambert's men took the lead into the break courtesy of a strike from Christian Benteke, but the sending-off of Villa full-back Joe Bennett swung the game in Norwich's favour.
They eventually claimed an equaliser thanks to Michael Turner, but were unable to find a winning goal in the closing stage.
Sports Mole has looked back over the 90 minutes to determine whether or not either side deserved to claim maximum points.
Match statistics:
Aston Villa:
Shots 7
On target 5
Possession 47%
Corners 3
Fouls 12
Norwich:
Shots 14
On target 6
Possession 53%
Corners 8
Fouls 7
Was the result fair?
Norwich were the more likely side to claim the winning goal after the break, but Villa defended extremely stubbornly. With that in mind and the fact Villa played a large amount of the second half a man light, a draw was arguably the fairest outcome.
Aston Villa's performance
It's hard to rate Villa's display because of Bennett's red card. Having said that, Lambert is bound to be delighted with the way that his side dealt with Norwich's pressure after the restart. The first half was not too clever though, where Villa were extremely wasteful in possession.
Norwich's performance
The only thing lacking from Norwich's performance was more goals. They were by no means great in the first half, but they came out for the second half more adventurous, only to find Brad Guzan in the home goal in good form. Chris Hughton will probably be disappointed that his side didn't win the match.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Wes Hoolahan: The Irish midfielder was the one player on the pitch who looked capable of something special. Time again he went by two or three Villa defenders and was always careful in possession. It was his cross that set up the equalising goal.
Biggest gaffe
He may have scored Norwich's goal, but Turner produced a defensive howler to allow Benteke to score for Villa. The centre-back was guilty of ball watching and the ball dropped to Turner's man, who slotted the ball into the net.
Referee performance
Phil Dowd is not everybody's cup of tea and it was a mixed performance from him today. He failed to give Norwich a penalty after Ron Vlaar had clearly fouled Elliott Bennett, although he was right to dismiss Joe Bennett for two bookable offences.
What next?
Aston Villa: After a meeting with Swindon Town in the Capital One Cup, Villa make the trip to Sunderland next Saturday.
Norwich: Tottenham Hotspur await in the League Cup before Stoke City visit Carrow Road a week today.
Liam Apicella
