His Newcastle counterpart Phil Stubbins was delighted with the performance of his side, if not the concession of a late equaliser that ensured a 1-1 scoreline in the round two meeting of the two clubs at AAMI Park in front of a bumper crowd of more than 15,000 – City's best for a home game not involving local rival Melbourne Victory.

Still, Stubbins admitted that, on the balance of the game, when City dominated but the Jets carved out the clearest chances, a draw was probably a fair result.

City was on the ropes and looking likely to go down to a first home defeat of the season until Villa's late strike, and van 't Schip knows that his team has to become more ruthless with the opportunities that come its way.

"In the first half we were dominating, having a lot of set pieces, creating some chances from them, and that's where you have to go up front. You know while it stays 0-0 they start believing more in a good result and an opponent will always create one or two chances.

"They scored from their second. After that we took more risks and came back to equalise but in the end they had a very big opportunity to finish the game. It's frustrating. In this game we were controlling and dominating the first half but in the end phase we were not ready to give the finishing punch.

"That's something we know in football – you have to score goals. Domination is not enough for three points. The goals are the ones that count."

He was, not surprisingly, delighted that Villa had got City out of jail again for the second time in a fortnight.

"We got him into the striker position ... a role where he can find his moment to go behind the defence. He looked very dangerous a few times. We have to try to get the ball to him a bit earlier.

"He's coming from three months not playing in a team. No matter where, you need time and rhythm to adjust. It was good that he scored again and played 90 minutes.

"We had a plan to try to keep him as long as possible on the pitch. At half-time he was feeling okay, in the second half there were no signs that we would have to take him off.

"He needs only a little moment, He's very quick in getting released and he's always going to be dangerous and find spaces to score or set up someone else," said the Dutchman.

Stubbins believes too many have been too quick to write off his club, which has to play its first four games away from home because the Hunter Stadium pitch is being resurfaced for the Asian Cup.

"We came here today and the perception of what we would present wasn't the reality. We played very well to a man.

"It wasn't meant to be. You could say they were fortunate, but in reflection of the full game it was probably a fair result. We did have a couple of very good chances two-thirds of the game gone which could probably have buried the game, but wasn't meant to be.

"We are slightly disappointed, but pretty happy with the performance."