With injuries hitting Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith’s plans during December, the latest to deal with was goalkeeper Orjan Nyland as we went into the first fixture of 2019 against Queens Park Rangers earlier today.
With recalls for Tommy Elphick and Jed Steer, it was a fairly changed side once again as we took to the Villa Park pitch but there was reason to cheer early on as Tammy Abraham gave us the 1-0 advantage in the 21st minute.
🗣 Dean Smith on the QPR draw and injury updates on @OrjanHNyland1, @JackGrealish1 and Axel Tuanzebe…#PartOfThePride #AVFC pic.twitter.com/98Upp6kYmR
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 1, 2019
QPR hit back twice though and Abraham saved us a point as he completed his brace in the 75th minute of the game, and after well over ten minutes of stoppage-time that was where the scores ended as although we did have the ball in the back of the net, it had long been ruled out by the referee.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, Smith said of the game.
“It was frustrating as we know it was a game we should have won. After Abraham’s first goal we fell away when we should have capitalised upon it. We lacked a bit of quality although the players showed a lot of character. Probably the four games in 10 days took their toll on key players like John McGinn and Conor Hourihane. Their quality was not as good as it usually is.”
Villa Dominate Chances But Can’t Take The Win From QPR – Match Stats
