SIR Bobby Robson couldn't hide his frustration after 10-man Aston Villa held his side to a 1-1 draw at St. james' Park on Saturday.

United fell behind when Dion Dublin scored after 10 minutes, but after Laurent Robert levelled in first half stoppage time, the second period was one way traffic against a Villa side reduced to 10-men with 20 minutes left when Gavin McCann was red-carded.

The Magpies saw a wave of attacks come to nothing, and when Thomas Sorensen saved Alan Shearer's spot-kick nine minutes from time the manager knew it wasn't going to be his day.

"It's a cruel game, and for the second time in a few days I'm left to wonder how we haven't won the match," said Sir Bobby.

"Against West Brom on Wednesday then against Aston Villa on Saturday, we've had enough possession and enough chances to win four games, never mind two. And at the end of them we haven't won either of them.

"Some of our football was terrific, we had enthusiasm and fight and overall I felt we outplayed them - it's very frustrating because we should have won handsomely.

"We were caught out with the set piece early on when they scored, but even then we should have been 1-0 up because laurent Robert should have scored with his header after a minute.

"But we levelled it up before half time, deservedly so, and after the break it was one way traffic. I think Shay's only had one save to make."

Former Sunderland goalkeeper Sorensen will take the headlines after repeating his infamous save to deny Shearer from the spot, though another former Black Cat, Gavin McCann, provided the main talking point of the game.

McCann's wild lunge on Robert saw him pick up a second yellow card, and while he and the visiting bench appeared to be incensed, Sir Bobby couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

"What was the argument about. it was a terrible challenge, it was a yellow card and he already had one of them so he was shown a red card," said Sir Bobby.

"It was a simple decision for the referee really, and I felt Hitzlsperger was lucky to stay on the field even before McCann went because he commited a bad challenge from behind.

"We're disappointed at the end of the day because we should have won by some distance, but we've got a busy week coming up with Basle on Thursday then Chelsea next Sunday, so we'll regroup and make sure we're ready for them."