Football: Villa suffer more home frustration in Swansea draw

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom (AFP) - Aston Villa endured another frustrating outing on home turf as Swansea hit back to rescue a 1-1 draw at Villa Park on Saturday.

Paul Lambert's team were on course for a rare success in front of their own fans when Gabriel Agbonlahor opened the scoring early in the first half.

But Swansea's Roland Lamah equalised before the interval and the hosts were unable to snatch a winner.

That meant Villa have now won just one of their last seven home matches, although the draw did at least end a miserable run of four consecutive Premier League defeats.

Villa are four points above the relegation zone, with Swansea, who are without a win in their last six games, a further point ahead of Lambert's side in the table.

Villa had left the field to jeers after losing at home to Crystal Palace on Thursday but they began positively, pressing high up the pitch and wasting no time breaking forward.

They got their reward after seven minutes as Andreas Weimann picked up the ball on the right and played in Agbonlahor, who exploited dreadful positioning by the Swansea defence and found himself all alone on the edge of the penalty area.

Agbonlahor initially seemed to hesitate, but then showed good composure to slot his shot under Swansea goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel.

Swansea's first chance to equalise came in the 17th minute when Pablo Hernandez cut inside and tested Brad Guzan, who spilled the ball before gathering at the second attempt.

Three minutes later the visitors should have been level but Ben Davies headed the ball into the ground and over the bar from six yards when he was picked out by Jonathan De Guzman's corner.

However, Michael Laudrup's team drew level in the 36th minute when Jonjo Shelvey found Hernandez on the left and his cross was headed in at the back post by Lamah.

Guzan was called into action early in the second half, tipping over De Guzman's free-kick, before Wilfried Bony fired well over the bar.

Villa rarely looked like winning it and even Fabian Delph's well-struck shot was straight at Tremmel.

That turned out to be the final chance and Villa's angry fans responded to the final whistle with more boos.

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