Newcastle United defeat Aston Villa at Villa Park to heap pressure on manager ... - NEWS.com.au

Striker's finish ... Papiss Cisse hold off Nathan Baker to score the opener. Source: AAP

Newcastle United defeated Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park on Wednesday morning (AEDT) in a battle of two of the Barclays Premier Leauge most out-of-form sides.

The defeat is sure to heap more pressure on Villa manager Paul Lambert, with the club dropping into the relegation zone, while Alan Pardew will be a relieved man as the Magpies moved one place away from the bottom three.

Papiss Cisse gave the visitors the lead inside 20 minutes, running onto a nice through-ball from Moussa Sissoko and slotting the ball past Brad Guzan.

It was 2-0 barely 10 minutes later, as one of Newcastle's French brigade, Yohan Cabaye, unleashed a stunning volley from outside the box that gave Guzan no chance.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	23	18	2	3	27	56
2	Man City	24	15	7	2	26	52
3	Chelsea	23	13	6	4	25	45
4	Tottenham	23	12	5	6	12	41
5	Everton	23	9	11	3	9	38
6	Arsenal	23	10	7	6	19	37
7	Liverpool	23	9	7	7	12	34
8	Swansea	24	8	10	6	7	34
9	West Brom	23	10	4	9	1	34
10	Stoke	24	6	12	6	-5	30
11	Sunderland	24	7	8	9	-4	29
12	West Ham	23	7	6	10	-7	27
13	Norwich	23	6	8	9	-15	26
14	Fulham	23	6	7	10	-7	25
15	Newcastle	24	6	6	12	-12	24
16	Southampton	23	5	8	10	-10	23
17	Wigan	24	5	5	14	-18	20
18	Aston Villa	24	4	8	12	-26	20
19	Reading	23	4	7	12	-15	19
20	QPR	24	2	10	12	-19	16

Villa didn't go down without a fight, pulling a goal back early in the second half.

Mathieu Debuchy was adjudged to have brought down Gabriel Agbonlahor in the penalty area, and Christian Benteke converted his spot kick to make it 2-1.

Villa piled on the pressure late in the game, launching countless raids on Tim Krul's goal, but were unable to get a vital equaliser.

More to come...