Aston Villa 1-1 Huddersfield; Match Facts

Aston Villa were refused another encouraging win as new 'keeper Pierluigi Gollini made a major late save. Gollini was at fault with a poor clearance in the opening loss at Sheffield Wednesday .

And Roberto Di Matteo 's new-look side were made to pay for their failure to kill off Huddersfield in a dominant first half.

New £12million striker Ross McCormack lead in the opener as Villa were intensely cheered off after beating Rotherham 3-0 before now.

But Gollini made a major pile four minutes from time as his clearance hit  Michael Hefele and bounced back into an empty net.

It was defender Hefele's first touch just seconds after entering the pitch as the visitors battle to equalise. His unique goal kept alive Town's impressive unbeaten start this season under David Wagner and brought back bad memories of Villa's error-ridden horror campaign last term which resulted in Premier League relegation with just 17 points amid fan fury.


Atkinson died this week aged 48 in controversial circumstances after being tasered by police following a disturbance. He was greatly eulogised at his old club where the hosts dominated the first half. They took the saddle when Grealish knocked Leandro Bacuna's deep ball back across goal for McCormack to head in on 25 minutes with his first goal for Villa.

Villa should have doubled their lead before the break but Mark Hudson cleared Ayew's shot off the line.

Huddersfield were better of after the break as Wagner brought on Sean Scannell and then later Nahki Wells.

Gollini had to make a good save to his left from Elias Kachunga's overhead kick and saw Wells free-kick hit the woodwork but the keeper ultimately shot Villa in the foot infront of a boisterous crowd of 34,924.

Match facts

ASTON VILLA:

Gollini; Bacuna,Elphick, Chester,
Cissokho; Ayew, Westwood, Tshibola (Gardner 86);
Grealish; Gestede, McCormack (Green 78).

Subs not used: Bunn, Baker, Richards, Hutton, Amavi.

HUDDERSFIELD:

Ward; Smith, Hudson, Schindler, Lowe (Hefele 86);
 Lolley (Scannell 46), Hogg, Mooy, Payne (Wells 56), Van La Parra.

Subs not used: Coleman, Whitehead, Cranie, Palmer.

Referee: Scott Duncan