Dean Smith told his Aston Villa players to improve their body language at halftime

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Aston Villa boss Dean Smith saw his side record a high scoring draw at home to Hull City on Saturday.

Aston Villa boss Dean Smith has revealed that he told his players to improve their body language during their 2-2 draw against Hull City on Saturday afternoon.

Villa went into the halftime break 2-1 down, with Jarod Bowen and Evandro netting for Nigel Adkin’s side and centre-back James Chester replying with a header just before the interval

In the second half, Villa did improve their performances, with Tammy Abraham scoring the equalising goal, but Smith’s side were unable to find that winning strike.

After the match, Smith revealed that he ‘had a word’ with the players during the break as he explained what he told them to stop doing and improve on.

“I had a word at halftime,” Smith told BBC Radio WM as posted on their official Twitter account. “I just felt that at 2-0 down there was mistakes happening, which happen in every game and it’s a tough place to play in at 2-0 down, especially when you are not on a great run.

“There were few too many arms going up [because of the mistakes] and I told the players about that. The second half, I thought the body language. the energy levels and intensity was a lot better.”

It was another damaging result for Smith and his players as their chances of clinching a top-six spot in the Championship are looking slimmer by the week.

They are seven points outside of the playoff places and have conceded a mammoth 45 goals during this campaign – only relegation-threated Rotherham and bottom-of-the-table Ipswich have shipped more.

Villa have not picked up three points since their 1-0 win at Swansea at the end of December as they host Paul Lambert’s Ipswich next Saturday.

Striker Abraham, who is now the top marksman in the second tier of English football with 17 strikes, will be hoping to add to his tally against the league’s weakest defence.