Aston Villa 1-1 Swansea City

Aston Villa's four-match losing run in the Premier League came to an end as they battled to a draw against a Swansea side which failed to make the most of their dominance at Villa Park.

Villa went ahead through a well-taken Gabriel Agbonlahor strike.

But Swansea monopolised possession and deservedly equalised when Roland Lamah headed home a Pablo Hernandez cross.

The visitors were unable to secure the winner, though, with a Jonathan De Guzman free-kick the closest they got.

Both managers would have been hoping to end 2013 with a victory which would have stopped them entering the new year nervously looking down towards the bottom end of the table.

Instead, Villa are now just four points away from the bottom three and the boos which echoed around Villa Park at the final whistle suggests the home fans are unsatisfied.

Villa manager Paul Lambert is becoming accustomed to such jeers ringing in his ears, with his team also heckled after the 1-0 Boxing Day defeat by Crystal Palace, which was their fourth straight loss.

But at least the draw has stopped Villa from plummeting further down the table, although their home form will still be a concern to many. The hosts have gained just eight points from their 10 Premier League home games this season and continue to lack spark on their own patch.

Swansea, who are a point above Villa in the table in 11th, should have left the Midlands with a victory, but the Welsh team have not been prolific in front of goal of late. Even the return of record signing Wilfried Bony to lead the attack could not fill the void left by the absence of injured striker Michu.

Villa made the perfect start when Andreas Weimann surged forward and found Agbonlahor, who coolly placed the ball beyond Gerhard Tremmel for his 65th Premier League goal.

The hosts have had little to cheer of late so it was understandable that the entire team sprinted towards the dugout to celebrate what was only their seventh league goal at Villa Park this season.

However, the optimism soon drained away from the hosts as Swansea, dictating the tempo of the game, set up camp in the Villa half.

Michael Laudrup's men went close through Ben Davies and De Guzman before Lamah nodded in to restore parity.

Jonjo Shelvey's cute pass set Hernandez loose down the left and the Spaniard presented the Belgian with the easiest of opportunities to score from just two yards out.

The hosts left the field at the break to more boos and those grumbles of discontent turned into cries of frustration from the home fans as they attempted to encourage their team to create something of note in the second half.

Swansea had chances to clinch the victory, with a De Guzman free-kick forcing Guzan into a save while Angel Rangel was inches from connecting with a lovely Shelvey cross.

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert: "We are without big players, it is too much for us to carry at times. We are only 18 months into our project, I knew the first few years would be tough.

"We are sitting not too bad at the moment. Last year was the toughest I have ever encountered, the results were horrendous.

"We knew we had to stick with it, and we never flinched from it and will not do so again.

"The game is about putting the ball into the net, Brad Guzan had few saves to make. We stopped the source and it is something to build on."

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup: "We got a point but I think we lost two points.

"In the first half we created the chances. We made it a little difficult for ourselves giving away the early goal but came back and dominated completely.

"In the second half we had the ball but didn't create that much. The possession in the first half was followed up by chances and good play and we should have scored more than once."

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