Aston Villa 2-2 Nottingham Forest

Henri Lansbury's late equaliser against Aston Villa was his first goal this season

A late equaliser from Henri Lansbury saw Nottingham Forest claim an unlikely Championship draw at Aston Villa.

Villa's Ross McCormack hit the post and debutant Jonathan Kodjia went close only for Apostolos Vellios to smash in Forest's opener after the break.

Villa's Jordan Ayew hit the bar before creating McCormack's equaliser.

Gestede's acrobatic finish put Villa ahead again, only for Lansbury make it 2-2 before Forest's Hildeberto Pereira was sent off after a second booking.

• Relive Aston Villa's draw against Nottingham Forest

Villa, who have only won once in their opening six games, dominated the first half and should have gone ahead when McCormack hit the post from close range after he met Kodjia's cross following a bursting run into the box from Ayew.

Ayew had another decent chance moments later, when he leapt and touched an Aly Cissokho delivery wide - and the Ghana forward then shot high and wide as Villa failed to make their chances pay.

Just before the break they had a second golden chance to take the lead as Kodjia's header was expertly turned away on the line by Forest keeper Vladimir Stojkovic.

Despite Villa looking dangerous again after the restart, it was Forest who took the lead with their first attempt on target, as Lansbury laid the ball to Vellios, who turned 20 yards out to smash the ball past substitute keeper Mark Bunn and claim his first goal for the club.

Ayew then struck the crossbar and McCormack had a header pushed away by Stojkovic before the two combined to equalise, with the Ghanaian finding the former Fulham striker, who finished from eight yards.

And Ayew was instrumental again as Villa scored a second two minutes later as another bursting run forward resulted in him crossing to Gestede, who acrobatically turned to fire the bouncing ball into the net.

Forest substitute Pereira then broke free before laying the ball off to Lansbury, who shot beyond Bunn from inside the box with only Forest's second effort on target of the afternoon.

Kodjia headed over late on as Forest, reduced to 10 men after Pereira was sent off for his second yellow card as they celebrated their equaliser, held out for a draw.

Aston Villa manager Roberto di Matteo:

"We need to win these games, it's as simple as that. That's why I was shaking my head at the end of the game, it's really difficult to take.

"I'm frustrated by the result because the performance was very good. We dominated the whole game. We hit the post, the bar, the keeper makes a couple of world class saves but we are moving in the right direction.

"With time we will learn and improve in these situations where we will be able to finish games off. Right now we have made a lot of changes in the transfer window. It's really frustrating but the performance was really good."

Nottingham Forest head coach Philippe Montanier:

"It was a tough game for us because Villa started very strongly. It was better from us in the end of the first half but we conceded a lot of opportunities to score. Villa deserved the victory but sometimes you can win a point when you are a little lucky. We showed good character."

"He [Hildeberto Pereira] knows the rules, it's not to jump into the crowd so we have to check on the video if he did.

"If he did then it's a big fine for him. If you are near the crowd it's different to jumping."