A GLUM Kyle Walker-Peters gave an honest assessment of his own and his team’s performance after their defeat to Aston Villa on Friday. The 25-year-old’s experience over 90 minutes almost perfectly encapsulates the direction the match went in on a poignant evening in the Midlands. As Saints failed to move the ball through the thirds, the combative hosts cut down the visitors across the pitch – and often it was Walker-Peters left shoved to the ground.
Kyle Walker-Peters said: “I don’t think we deserved anything from the game. I think they were more aggressive than us and won more duels and second balls. When you don’t do that, that’s the bare minimum, then you get punished. Although it’s a narrow defeat, when you look back we don’t deserve anything. I just think on the night they were better and more aggressive, showing a lot more quality on the ball. I do think they were there for the taking, I know they were under a lot of pressure coming into the match but we didn’t put our stamp on the game. From minute one we didn’t do all the things we practised in training, we didn’t execute it well enough and were punished for that.”
It meant back-to-back defeats on the road, in the Midlands, for the travelling supporters – who came out in voice at both Wolves’ Molineux and Villa Park in the last two. Now, they wait until October for Saints’ next action in the Premier League with an international break taking out next weekend’s fixtures.
Kyle Walker Peters said: “I would definitely say stick with us, it’s another narrow defeat and we’re not losing games by big margins. There’s definitely room for improvement, we’re almost there and we have shown the level we can hit so hopefully our luck turns again. As a team, we need to be better when things are going crap. Can we still say in the game? Can we find a way to get ourselves into it? We’ve shown that versus Leeds, Leicester and Chelsea when things weren’t going our way that we can turn things around, but the last two we haven’t done that.”
