Aston Villa boss Ron Atkinson blamed captain Kevin Richardson for forcing him and his side to suffer a fraught final four minutes in their UEFA cup first-round tie with Solvan Bratislava at Villa Park. Villa were 2-0 when Richardson missed a great opportunity and the visitors scored a late goal to put the midlands side in a nervy position late on.
Ron Atkinson said “If Kevin Richardson’s header bad gone in we would have been past the post, I just couldn’t believe that he had missed it. It was incredible. We were always aware that we could not kill them off unless we got the third goal and perhaps we were guilty of trying to consolidate rather than to go for it. Overall I am satisfied because we have come through a very difficult task against a very experienced, quality side,”
