"We knew this would be a hard game as Villa have won four out of four and they were a lot sharper than us all round and kept getting round the back of us.
"We still had chances in the first half but didn't take them and paid the consequences. In the second half we didn't create much and they could have scored more. We have to do a lot better.
"Vladimir Smicer played for just over an hour and he needed a game to build his fitness up, as did Markus Babbel and Gregory Vignal. They will have known they have been in a game tonight."