We created chances.
Didn't take them.
Hence my opinion on another day we get a decent result.
That would have been a point the way the season has gone.
This is what happened. Unfortunately some people refuse to accept it.
DCL is clearly rusty but the goals will come. He mistimed his jump several times and essentially missed an open goal when sliding in from Gordons excellent first time cross - please take note Gray, get the ball in early and stop chopping back ffs.
Mina had an easy header from a fantastic Allan cross and another good chance from a Gordon corner. 50p shaped head for both sadly.
I thought Godfrey should have scored with the header. Fair margin of error to the right of the defender on the line.
Gray had a great chance from a corner. Free hit from 14 yards but showed zero composure and slashed over.
Regardless of style of play that's 5 good chances from the top of my head in the 2nd half. Did Villa have a chance in the second half? I appreciate that was partly due to game management but even so, we had them on the ropes for pretty much the half.
We were poor first half but even then, if Doucoure had executed a regulation pass then Richy has a one on one.
Allan seemingly couldn't play more than around 50-60 mins hence why he didn't start.
In hindsight Gordon should have started but maybe he doesn't have the same impact on the game as a starter who knows. Townsend is an experienced player with a big goal in him but I thought his delivery was very poor and disappointing on the whole. Gordon will start the next game.
Style of play was direct and let's face it, grim, but in reality what did people expect in this game?
Kenny was horrific and I doubt he will play again. Patterson will surely be given a run.
Hopefully Doucoure wasn't injured too badly.
I'm not overly worried as we were competitive today, Villa have played some great football in recent games yet whilst they were the better team first half, we didn't allow them anything of note in the second half. Crucially we created a number of chances and with better finished plus a touch more care with a final pass, we will score goals. Rafael's parting shot was to sell Digne who assisted the Villa goal plus we could have really done with him today at left back with either Holgate or Godfrey at right back. Benetiz really is an odious, vile individual.
Any way, I'm confident we will turn it around. Chin up.