Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish admits Darren Bent could be haunted by his glaring miss in their 2-2 draw at Sunderland.

McLeish admitted Bent could have nightmares about the 70th-minute miss that could have cost his victory in a 2-2 draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

He said: "Darren will be agonising over it as all good players do. He will be wondering if he should have hit it harder or higher and he's the one who will decide.

"As all good players do, they look back on their good moments and the moments that didn't quite work out. There was disappointment at not scoring but there was great movement to get the chance."

McLeish went on accuse Sunderland defender Wes Brown of being "cute" in another incident in which Bent was pulled up for a foul before skipping straight through.

McLeish added: "The referee is running behind so he can see what's happening but he asked the linesman to make the decision. I don't know why the linesman had to get involved.

"I thought it was a fair shoulder charge. Wes is an experienced player and he was pretty cute and he knew that Benty had him beat. So it was good experience from Wes Brown.

"It's frustrating to take the lead so late in the game in what was a pretty controlled performance from us. We played well and to lose a goal so late was disappointing."