Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa

Aston Villa played out a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest as Ashley Young netted a long-range strike at The City Ground.

The experienced wide man bagged his first goal for Villa since May 2011 as he fired home a low 25-yard effort, becoming the club’s second-oldest Premier League goalscorer after Peter Schmeichel.

Young’s leveller came just seven minutes after Emmanuel Dennis had headed The Reds in front, with both sides going on to share the spoils.

The point, in the club’s first Premier League fixture at Forest since 1998, ensures Villa, who enjoyed the better of the encounter but could not find a winner, are now unbeaten in four matches.

The Villans will be looking to extend that run when they entertain Chelsea on Sunday.

Fit-again Matty Cash, facing his former club, and Emi Buendía returned to Villa’s starting line-up as head coach Steven Gerrard made two changes from the goalless draw at Leeds United.

Villa dominated the opening 15 minutes but it was Forest who opened the scoring with the game’s first attempt on target, Dennis heading home Morgan Gibbs-White’s free-kick from eight yards out.

But the visitors were level just seven minutes later as Forest could only half-clear Ollie Watkins’ header and Young rifled home a low strike from 25 yards.

Villa thought they had taken the lead when Watkins pounced to convert Jacob Ramsey’s low cross but his strike was ruled out for offside.

And it remained level at the interval, with the Villans edging the first period but clear-cut openings at a minimum.

Ramsey’s neat turn created an opening at the start of the second half but Scott McKenna snuffed out the danger for the hosts.

Watkins saw his far-post header well saved by Dean Henderson before Gerrard turned to substitute Danny Ings in the 65^th minute.

John McGinn found himself in space in the penalty area but couldn’t direct his header goalwards, while Emi Martínez produced a super save to keep out Cheikhou Kouyate’s long-range strike.

Leander Dendoncker and Cameron Archer were introduced as the encounter entered the latter stages, with the striker heading across goal when well placed.

But Villa could not find a late goal and were forced to settle for a point, in turn extending their impressive run against Forest to one defeat in the last 15 meetings in all competitions stretching back to 1995.