Aston Villa 3-3 Brentford: Late Watkins goal earns point for Villa

Ollie Watkins rescued a late point for Aston Villa who had earlier surrendered a two-goal lead against Brentford in the Premier League.

And Morgan Rogers doubled the hosts’ lead 32 seconds after the restart with a fine, low finish into the bottom corner.

But Brentford responded with three goals in nine second-half minutes. First, Mikkel Damsgaard’s cross deflected in off Mathias Jorgensen’s foot just before the hour mark.

Two minutes later the Bees levelled when Bryan Mbeumo volleyed in Sergio Reguilon’s cross.

And Brentford went in front in the 68th minute when Yoana Wissa tapped in Reguilon’s low delivery across goal.

Watkins denied the visitors a first win in nine matches though, heading in the equaliser with 10 minutes remaining.

Villa remain fourth, three points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham, having played two matches more. Brentford drop to 16th, six points clear of the bottom three.

Watkins rescues sloppy Villa

Aston Villa seemed to be cruising to just their second league win in five matches when Rogers doubled their lead with his first goal for the club.

Over nine nightmarish minutes though they allowed Brentford to turn things around with three textbook crosses into the box, and were once again reliant on talisman Watkins to rescue them in the closing stages.

The England striker not only has the most goal involvements (goals and assists) in the Premier League this season, his 28 goal involvements is the most in a single season for a Villa player, overtaking Dwight Yorke’s tally in the 1995-96 campaign.

He was badly missed in Aston Villa’s 4-1 loss to Manchester City on Wednesday. And his productive return from a minor hamstring injury was one positive for Villa on Saturday.

Unai Emery’s side will be without Douglas Luiz for their next two league matches, after the midfielder picked up a 10th yellow card of the season late on.

Villa host Lille in the Europa League on Thursday, before travelling to Arsenal in the Premier League three days later.

Brentford’s winless run continues

Brentford have dropped 30 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, more than any other team.

They have also not won in all competitions since they beat Wolves 2-0 on 10 February.

But in that run the Bees have produce fine performances against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United, and at Villa Park on Saturday they looked the better side for much of the second half.

Jorgensen netted his first goal for the club while Mbeumo ended his four-month goal drought.

Mbeumo started ahead of England forward Ivan Toney who came on in the 81st minute, but could not find a late winner as Brentford chose to sit back.

The visitors will be frustrated not to have held on to a superb comeback. They will hope to end their winless run at home to Sheffield United in their next match in seven days’ time.