Best, who is 25 on Monday, has continued the fine form he showed during the latter part of last season with his third goal of the current campaign. His effort cancelled out the opener from Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor to ensure both sides remain unbeaten in the Premier League season so far. Pardew said: "Leon is a guy who has been around the game a long time. "He has not really had the chances at Premier League level that he feels he deserves. "Leon has great belief in himself. He gets a start, he gets a goal, and he keeps the shirt, it's as simple as that in my book. "I'm pleased for him and he will be in against Blackburn next week and I hope he scores again." Pardew was pleased with the Magpies' overall performance. He said: "I was really buoyed by our performance because when you come to Villa, you don't expect to control the game for as long as we did. "We got a grip of the central area of the pitch and Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote were outstanding. "If we can get Cabaye on the ball, you would pay good money to watch him. "He was beautiful today and deserved a goal and it was a fantastic save by Shay Given that kept him out. But I've got to be really pleased to get a draw here and with the performance we gave, and I felt we perhaps deserved the win. "I thought we looked a threat the whole game and we created great chances and it bodes well for us going forward." Villa boss Alex McLeish felt his side should have been more ruthless in front of goal. The normally deadly Darren Bent missed two gilt-edged chances. He said: "We could have been better in the final third. "We were a bit careless and we've got to be more ruthless in those situations. "Benty had a right good chance to make it 2-0 and it is not like him to miss those chances but he is only human." McLeish felt Villa lost momentum after skipper Stiliyan Petrov (ankle) and Stephen Warnock (hip) were handicapped in the second half by injuries. He said: "We started in a blistering way. There was a good feeling after the first goal and we were opening them up and looked dangerous. "Then we had a couple of problems with Petrov and Warnock and we lost a bit of momentum with these injuries."
