Dean Smith was left frustrated as John McGinn and Ahmed Elmohamady switched off in the buildup to Sheffield United’s winner on Wednesday afternoon, as he told the Aston Villa website.
Jack Grealish’s return cannot come soon enough.
In three games without their talismanic skipper, Villa have won just once and scored a grand total of two goals.
And their Europa League hopes suffered another blow during a 1-0 defeat to bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, with David McGoldrick’s first-half winner and some truly heroic defending providing the platform for a rare Blades triumph.
McGoldrick scored the only goal with half an hour played, drifting in behind both McGinn and Elmohamady to tap in at the far post.
And Smith was far from impressed about the way two of his most experienced players switched off at the key moment.
“It feels like we’ve thrown away three points here – that’s the biggest disappointment,” Smith explained at full-time.
“They had a few chances, but it was a poor goal that we conceded.
“McGoldrick switches play on the halfway line and runs off the back of McGinn and Elmo doesn’t know he’s there, he tries to let the ball go out for a goal kick and you find yourself 1-0 down in a game where you feel you’re on top.”
Aston Villa had plenty of chances to grab a point – or perhaps even all three.
Ollie Watkins hit the bar, Bertrand Traore fired wide after a weaving run while Aaron Ramsdale maintained his impressive recent run with a glut of saves as ten-man Sheffield United battened down the hatches following Phil Jagielka’s second-half red card.
“I thought we started the second half really well; we were camped in their half for long periods and we moved the ball a lot quicker. The sending off gave us a big advantage and we didn’t take it,” Smith added.
“We looked like we wanted to score within the first five minutes of their player getting sent-off and I thought we put too many poor balls into the box.
“We lacked that little bit of quality that I expect with the players we’ve got.”
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