Under 21 manager Gordan Cowans has said he was disappointed to see Villa narrowly lose the derby with West Bromwich Albion on Monday night especially as it meant our first defeat of the 2015-16 Under 21 campaign.
U21s – Villa 0-1 WBA
Speaking to the Official Site after the one nil loss at Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium, Cowans explained that there were positives from the game such as the return of Jores Okore for his first game of the year.
Having recovered now from his summer knee surgery having last played for us in the Arsenal FA Cup Final loss, Okore got the 90 minutes under his belt as fans will know.
‘It was great to see Jores come back. That was a big positive and everyone is very happy that’s he comes through it with the long-term injury he’s had. He’s done well to come through and I think he did well.’
As for the game itself, Cowans admitted the 90 minutes were frustrating because we had been playing very well this year but we just weren’t quite on it in the game.
With that said, it still could’ve gone the other way in his mind.
‘Overall it was frustrating. When you’ve been playing as well as we have been, playing games and overrunning teams, it makes it very disappointing when a game pans out like that. Libor Kozak was pulling off shoulders, had a couple of headers and on another day might’ve finished them. I thought in the first half we were the better side. We had the better chances but in the second half we were sloppy and gave the ball away too easily. These things happen. This is a local derby.’
Sid now has a three week break until our next Premier League Division Two tie against Swansea which takes place on October 19, so the aim now will be a few friendlies and hopefully a real tightness in training to gel the group even more.
Especially with some of our Under 18s such as Callum O’Hare, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Corey Blackett-Taylor making the step up to the Under 21 level over the last few games.
‘We’ve got a few friendlies arranged. It’ll give the lads who haven’t been playing some game time. We’ll regroup before Swansea.’
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