Aston Villa goal hero John McGinn has opened up on his difficult start to the season with an admission he let down former manager Steven Gerrard.
John McGinn said: “The goal has been a long time coming. I was just fortunate the shot didn’t get blocked. It was just an amazing feeling it went in. After the Scotland win, it’s been an amazing week. The start of the season was for me was extremely difficult. The manager, Steven Gerrard, was first class with me, he had a lot of trust in me but I didn’t really repay that. My performances were below par. I spent some time on the bench and put my head down and worked hard. I got my chance to come back in and hopefully I can keep doing that and keep my form up.”
Reflecting on Villa’s success at Chelsea,
John McGinn added: “They are a good team. It is only a matter of time before it clicks for them. We do a load of work in training to get goals on the transitions. Ollie [Watkins] is on fire at the moment, so it was a great goal to get us going. Everyone was flinging their bodies on the line. This league’s difficult so to go on a run like we’ve done, and to stay so humble, to a man we were first class today.”
And touching on his own struggles in front of goal this term,
John McGinn added: “I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve tried to lace it and it’s been blocked. So this time I side-footed and it went in. I’m delighted and hopefully it will start a run.”