Home Comforts For Taylor

By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Steven Taylor was pleased to get through a tough encounter against Aston Villa with Newcastle United's unbeaten home record still intact.

The sides played out a 1-1 draw on Tyneside on Sunday afternoon, with Ciaran Clark breaking the deadlock for the visitors before a long range Hatem Ben Arfa strike salvaged a point.

Having built their success of last season on superb home form, the Magpies have started off this term in similar fashion, with two wins and a draw on their own patch.

And while they were given a scare by Villa, Taylor was keen to take the positives from a hard day's work 

"We are continuing to make this place tough for teams to come to," he told nufc.co.uk.

"We are unbeaten at home and we have to maintain that now.

"We have to get back to the basics and get back to where we were last year - asking a few more questions of teams in the final third.

"It was a draw today and we'll take that. For us, it was a difficult game. We've had a hard start to the season but we performed okay.

"Villa asked a few questions of us from the start but we responded very well through Hatem.

"Once we equalised we caused them problems, the fans were on their feet and we really put ourselves about.

"Demba and Papiss could have had a goal each today, and Yohan nearly won it.

"I said to him 'you couldn't have hit it any sweeter'. It was top corner and fair play to the keeper because he was magnificent all afternoon."