Gary O’Neil was left with mixed feelings after the loss to Aston Villa, with the head coach disappointed to not leave Villa Park with three points, but proud of the performance from his side.
With a short squad at his disposal and injuries to his key attacking players, O’Neil handed a Premier League debut to 18-year-old striker Leon Chiwome and he was pleased with the way his players went about a difficult West Midlands derby, and felt that if certain moments went his team’s way, the result could have been different.
On defeat at Villa Park
“I’m obviously really disappointed with the result. We didn’t come here to lose, so we’re disappointed, but that’s all I’m disappointed with, because performance-wise, there was loads in there and I’m proud of what they gave.
“We were ahead on loads of things, more shots, more possession, higher xG away to Aston Villa with the attacking players we have missing, it makes a huge difference today. Let’s not do any disservice to the ones who played because they gave everything and had some good moments.
“But when you have Pedro Neto, Cunha, Bellegarde and Channy [Hwang] to some of those moments with the xG we had, I’m sure we’d have converted higher.”
On the first goal being the killer
“We were the better team by a mile for the first part. We were causing them massive problems but somehow we found ourselves 1-0 down from that spell, so it was obviously a key moment. You could tell the Aston Villa fans were probably quite surprised by how dominant we were in those early stages and them going one-nil up relaxes the place, and they didn’t deserve to.
“But I’m really proud with what they gave because we knew we were going to have to dig in and fight, and they did. I’m disappointed that they came off having lost 2-0 because I don’t think they deserved it.
“On another day, we take those chances and take some points, but we take it on the chin and get ready for Tuesday.”
On not taking their own chances
“It didn’t feel comfortable for them until they scored their second, and I was disappointed with that goal. Obviously, every time you concede there’s going to be some kind of disappointment, but there were some big moments either end and two of their moments went in and none of ours did.
“Rayan [Ait-Nouri]’s chance, Doc’s header, Nathan [Fraser] had a chance late on, and a couple of other little bits around the goal that we could have done better. I can only ask them to give so much, which they did, and we tried to tidy up a few bits, but in terms of a team and a performance of coming to a good team and giving their everything, they did that.”
On Ait-Nouri’s early chance
“It was a massive chance, huge, and 99 times out 100 he will score from there. Six yards out, with a massive part of the goal free.
“It’s one of those that you don’t miss often, but we did, and then we got caught the other end. Villa didn’t really cause us many problems too much, but then we find ourselves 1-0 down and it relieves a bit of the pressure at the place, the place feels a bit more positive, and even though we were having loads of joy down our right, especially through Nelson [Semedo], it’s just one of those things that we didn’t quite have enough today.”
On Chiwome’s Premier League debut
“I didn’t make a big thing of it – just named him in the team like I do everyone else. I’ve been in that situation and you don’t want a big thing made of it. You want to be treated like everyone else. But he’s earned the right to be in and around it and he did really well.
“I was pleased with how he did and I was pleased with how hard he worked. Considering he hasn’t trained with us much, he’s hardly trained with us at all and I’ve probably only met him three or four times on the training pitch, but he’s worked his socks off.
“You could see his understanding was slightly off compared to the others, but he’s been with us three or four days and the others have been with us months, so he worked his socks off and looked a bit of a threat in behind because he can run.
“But I hoped he enjoyed it because it’s tough out there to lose a Premier League game, but I hope he enjoyed parts of it because it’s good to get that moment and we’re going to need him, so we’ll keep working with him, keep improving him and get him ready to go again on Tuesday, and hopefully he can get a win on his next one.”
On the attacking injury worries
“Cunha’s doing great and is miles ahead of schedule. He’s banging my door down to be involved and wanted to be involved today, but we need to make sure he’s right.
“We’ve had a couple of setbacks already from injury, so a more bit of good work into Matheus Cunha and he’ll be around for the games during the rest of the week, I’m sure of it. Channy is not too far behind him and Pedro is quite a way back.
“When they come back, they’ll give a really good attacking injection to help the boys who are already working their socks off. We go to Burnley on Tuesday, we’ll try to give the best we can and hopefully we can take three points.”
