United drew 2-2 at Norwich City last time out, with the former Nottingham Forest stopper’s error presenting the Canaries with their second goal last Tuesday night.

But the 26-year-old made amends in front of a 50,000-plus crowd at St. James’ Park on Monday, stretching to tip Jonathan Kodjia’s deflected cross over in the first half before producing a superb save to deny Birkir Bjarnason when he went one-on-one after the break.

And Darlow said he was happy to have played his part in another resolute defensive display from the Magpies and banished any lingering memories of the trip to Carrow Road.

“I just needed to get back on track after the Norwich game, so I was happy with the saves. It’s nice for me to contribute towards the team and with the second one especially, at 2-0, it might have changed things," he told nufc.co.uk.

“It’s good for me, but we were solid at the back again, never really gave them much, and that was key.

“I was just excited to play again, to be honest – this game couldn’t come quick enough for me. It was one of those where I was looking forward to getting back out on the pitch and getting back to what I have been doing.

“It’s nice to have left that behind me now, and to have kicked on.”

Rafa Benitez’s side are now unbeaten in their last seven league outings, with five of those matches ending in victory for United.

“I think we’re on a good run here. We’ve had a couple of draws, but I think we’ve won four or five recently and if we keep this up until the end of the season, we’ll be looking really good,” said Darlow.

“They played some good stuff, Villa, but I thought we stuck to the gameplan well. We kept it tight and we knew that we’d have opportunities.

“We got the second goal and then I think we dominated, really – we had chances and we were playing some god stuff. It was a good victory, a solid victory and we’re very pleased with it.

“You’re going to have patches where it’s up and down in this league, and we’ve not really – touch wood – hit a bad patch. As long as we keep on grinding out results and doing what we have done tonight, we’ll look very good for the end of the season.”

Monday night’s win followed another display from Gallowgate Flags just prior to kick-off, whose efforts helped create a fine atmosphere in the ground.

“It was amazing. It just inspires you as a player,” said Darlow of the display. “I think the fact we know that we’ve got the fans onside really helps us, and they really did push us on throughout the game, which was good.

“We worked hard, and I think we gave them a good performance that they can be pleased with.”