Aston Villa picked up an important point away from home against Steve Bruce’s Newcastle United last night.
Dean Smith’s side are still 19th in the league table but are level on points with 17th placed West Ham United, who they face on the final day of the campaign.
Villa looked fairly decent against the Magpies but a defensive error in the 68th minute gave the hosts the lead.
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Ezri Konsa’s momentary lapse in concentration allowed Dwight Gayle to slot the ball home, and Smith admitted that he had a go at the young defender for his mistake.
He said as quoted by The Birmingham Mail: “You can’t account for a mistake. Ezri’s gone to sleep and I’ve had a bit of a pop at him in the dressing room after because he needs to learn from it.”
“He’s a young player and will be better for it but, given the situation we’re in at the moment especially given the video work we’ve done for the game, he gets attracted to a wide player when he should be inside covering Kortney.”
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“It should have been a simple run coming onto it but he doesn’t and Dwight gets a simple goal.”
Conor Hourihane’s brilliant corner in the 83rd minute found Ahmed Elmohamady in the box, who headed home the equaliser to give the Villans a hugely important point.
Villa can’t afford to lose against Wolves
Things don’t get any easier for Villa. Smith’s men host high-flying Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday. Wolves are unbeaten in the league in their last seven games and will cause the Villans a ton of problems.
However, Smith needs to find a way to contain the Wanderers as a loss on Saturday could potentially cost them their status of being a Premier League club.
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