Following yesterday’s clash between Aston Villa and Barnsley, here are the instant reactions from both managers.
Aston Villa hosted Barnsley at Villa Park on Saturday January 20, with the hosts taking a three one victory.
Villa opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the game as Scott hogan found the net and he bagged his brace two minutes later. Barnsley had reduced Villa’s advantage in the eleventh minute as Dimitri Cavare struck what became their consolation from the game. Former Barnsley midfielder Conor Hourihane tied the game up on 19 minutes as he made it three.
Hogan could’ve had a hattrick but the woodwork denied him and Kieffer Moore and Tom Bradshaw missed good opportunities to make more of a game of it.
Teams:
Aston Villa:
Johnstone, El Mohamady Abdel Fattah, Chester, Terry, Hutton, Bjarnason, Snodgrass, Grealish, Hourihane (Whelan 86), Adomah (Onomah 77), Hogan (Davis 90).
Substitutes:
Taylor, Lansbury, Elphick, Bunn.
Barnsley:
Davies, Cavare, McCarthy (Hammill 45), Lindsay, Pinnock, Yiadom, Potts (Mottley-Henry 68), Mallan, Moncur, Moore (Thiam 73), Bradshaw.
Substitutes:
Townsend, Pearson, Brown, Wolfe.
Speaking to the BBC’s cameras a short time after match day referee Scott Duncan blew the final whistle, Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce explained.
‘We did exceptionally well for an hour, then went a bit sloppy and a bit negative, and possibly thought it was going to be too easy. We had two or three unbelievable chances to make it four and didn’t take them, and that gave them a bit of a lifeline. They had one or two chances themselves, but all in all, it was a comfortable victory and we’ll move onto the next one. We’re coming to the end of January, we’re in with a shout – there or thereabouts – and there’s a bit of confidence and belief coming. We looked a very decent team at times today.’
Barnsley head coach Paul Heckingbottom in his comparative interview explained.
‘If you look in the history books, you’ll not see many teams 2-0 down after seven minutes at Villa who come back and win. All three goals are absolutely scandalous on our part – if you’re going to do that, and miss chances at the other end, you’re not going to win. We paid Villa way too much respect at the start of the game. We were not even on the back foot – we just sort of submitted a little bit and let them dictate everything. Then we get ourselves back in the game and have some nice passages of play, so it’s horrible because we’ve done that before in a game. It’s not us – it’s not a team that I want to be associated with when we do that. We want to be fearless and we want to be aggressive.’
