Villa notched up a point against the Bluebirds despite the absence of three influential players.

Dominic Hofbauer, Nathan Delfouneso and Harry Forrester were all away with their country but this didn't stop Tony McAndrew's young charges coming from behind to earn a draw.

Tobias Mikaelsson hit the equalising goal, producing a neat finish from a Barry Bannan centre.

Coach McAndrew said: "We went back to basics in training and we actually banned any balls going over head height for a week because for some reason we were launching balls against MK Dons instead of passing.

"The Cardiff game was better but still not up to the standards we expect. We passed it well but with no tempo or penetration to our play.

"But it was much better than the performance against the MK Dons. We were in command early on and they tried to hit us on the break. There's always a danger of conceding through lack of concentration and that's what ultimately happened.

"We'd been attacking for long periods but they broke away and opened the scoring. Tobias equalised for us and we felt we could go on and win but they defended well and we missed a couple of good chances."