Aston Villa boss Dean Smith says debutant Pepe Reina's "charisma" rubbed off on his players after they fought back from 1-0 down to claim a point at Brighton.

The 37-year-old, who joined on loan from AC Milan earlier this week, made a superb late save to deny Neal Maupay and preserve a point for Villa, who had equalised through Jack Grealish's fine strike with 15 minutes left.

"The players know that they have a calm head behind them," Smith said of the former Liverpool goalkeeper.

"His charisma is rubbing off on people because our back-three were superb in the second half."

He added: "At the moment everyone knows we are playing without a recognised striker and it is down to Grealish, Trezeguet and Anwar El Ghazi to come up trumps with goals and they are managing to do that."