Hopes of a third successive win for Newcastle drained away at a saturated St. James' Park on Saturday, as the Premier League's basement side came from behind to salvage a point in the live TV teatime kick-off.

Winless in 15 games, Villa deservedly trailed at half time, although all United had to show for their efforts was a Fabricio Coloccini shot following a corner seven minutes before the interval.

At that point the chief obstacle to Steve McClaren's hopes of securing all three points looked to be the Tyneside weather - with a downpour of increasing volume leaving the pitch sodden and visibly impeding both sets of players at times as the ball began to stick in one or two areas.

Thankfully the rain abated in the second half and allowed the game to finish, but Villa got back on level terms thanks to an unstoppable effort by Jordan Ayew that flew past Rob Elliot.

That came just moments after Siem De Jong had missed a glaring chance to double his side's lead, heading Georginio Wijnaldum's deep cross wide from point-blank range. The Dutchman later found it necessary to apologise via twitter - an unnecessary gesture, but one that will probably become compulsory within a season or two.....

Going in search of a winner at 101, Gini himself finished the move of the match by shooting weakly at a grateful Brad Guzan. And when Moussa Sissoko broke into the Villa box from the right flank late on, Ayoze Perez looked odds-on to reprise his last-gasp winner at Spurs a week earlier - only to blaze his shot harmlessly over the crossbar.

A result that most of Tyneside feared after our recent unexpected resurgence could have been even more damaging had the visitors taken advantage of their superiority at 1-1, substitute striker Rudy Gestede becoming the latest average front man to unnerve our centre-back pairing.

For United, Papiss Cisse supplied the only two moments of goalmouth incident in the first half hour with two headers, but was forced off through injury and replaced by Aleksandar Mitrovic - who found the going rather too soft for his liking after a header forced the corner from which we scored.

The Serbian Mark McGhee may be getting fitter but his hold-up play still needs a lot of work and doesn't seem happy with balls played up to his head and rarely bothers to leave the ground. Today he was dragged into a battle with defender Joleon Lescott and his preoccupation with him meant that the position of the ball became something of an afterthought.

Criticised for a cautious approach in some quarters, McClaren attempted to boost his side's attacking options by introducing Florian Thauvin - who seemed excited by the surf-like conditions and was soon aqua-planing through a puddle. His attempts at tackling were little better than the crosses that he served up however, with no hint that they were anything other than random. We had a lad who could do that and cost a damn sight less, Sammy Ameobi.   

Elsewhere there weren't many great individual performances, although swamp-like conditions made it difficult for anyone to shine. Sissoko still looks to be sulking when played out wide and his decision-making about when to charge forward and take on multiple opponents remains questionable.

Pushed out towards the opposite flank and equally peripheral for the most part, Wijnaldum's display echoed his seen away from home, drifting in and out of the game, rather than taking it by the scruff of the neck. And although he gave the appearance of gliding across the sodden surface when others plodded, many of his flicks and tricks were superfluous and inferior to a simple, accurate pass.

Some mild booing at the end was a measure of the frustration felt by many fans and clearly irked McClaren who rightly stressed his satisfaction with the effort levels of his players today, compared to home games earlier this season.

Had we drawn at Spurs last Sunday and won today, then our points tally would be identical to what it is now - only in rather more expected circumstances. But in typical United fashion, we did things backwards and came home with a scalp only to slip up in our backyard  - something that goes far further back than this manager, this owner or these players. Maybe it is just in the DNA.

Wins for Chelsea, Norwich and Bournemouth earlier in the day saw United gain a point but drop to seventeenth. However, Swansea's 0-0 home draw with West Ham on Sunday meant that we at least avoided falling into the bottom three for Christmas. Failing to beat Villa leaves us two points worse off than after seventeen games of the 2008/09 season.