Bent: Not his day

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McLeish bemoans wastefulness

Manager Alex McLeish felt Aston Villa paid the price for poor finishing in a 2-1 loss to Newcastle at the weekend.

The Villans went down to strikes from Demba Ba (30) and new signing Papiss Demba Cisse (72), with Robbie Keane netting on the stroke of half-time for the visitors.

McLeish was naturally downcast to lose and conceded star hitman Darren Bent had a poor outing at the Sports Direct Arena.

“I’m disappointed we never won,” McLeish told Sky Sports.

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

“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.”