Dean Smith says the thought of allowing Sheffield United to walk a goal in against Aston Villa never crossed his mind. The Blades were denied a first-half opener in the goalless draw at Villa Park when the goal-line technology failed to inform referee Michael Oliver that Orjan Nyland had fumbled the ball across his own line.

Dean Smith said “That’s always going to be the case in football. There’s always going to be some error, we have human error from officials and we have to accept that. There’s going to be error in technology as we’ve seen with VAR this season and now for the first time ever with Hawk-Eye. We just have to accept it and move on, there’s nothing else we can do. (When asked if he considered allowing the visitors to score unopposed) Not at all and I don’t think Sheffield United would have done the same for us either.”