Former Aston Villa boss Dean Smith was ‘appreciative’ of the reception he got from the Villa Park faithful in his first return to the stadium since his sacking ;ast November.
Dean Smith said: “I’m appreciative, and appreciative that they know what we did here when we were here. It didn’t matter where we went down, Villa Park, Anfield, Old Trafford, wherever we went down, it looked inevitable it was going to happen. I’m just glad the lads fought until the end today.”
On the game, Smith believes his team probably deserved to take something,
Dean Smith added: “I’m disappointed because it wasn’t a performance we should have got relegated on. I thought it was a good performance. We quietened the crowd. They probably scored against the run of play – a ball over the top and a slip: Brandon [Williams] slips and Ollie [Watkins] scores. Unfortunately, that’s cost us in an awful lot of games this season – little individual mistakes. I felt we should have had a penalty just after that and didn’t get one, but I don’t suppose I’ll get a phone call from [referees’ chief] Mike Riley. The Premier League is tough. I was at Aston Villa a couple of years ago and we got promoted and we spent £125m to try and stay in the league. The key to it, for me, is when you play against the teams in and around you, that you feel you are going to be competing with them. In the big games, against Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea, you try and scrap to get something out of those games where you can. We all know there is a gulf in quality between the top three and the rest of the league. Ultimately, we’ve come up short.”
