Martin O’Neill was not a very happy manager after watching his side throw away a two goal lead against relegation threatened Stoke City at Villa Park yesterday.
Goals from Stiliyan Petrov and John Carew appeared to have handed the home side a much expected victory, but Tony Pulis’ side scored twice in the final three minutes to earn a valuable point.
The result means that Aston Villa missed the chance to extend their lead over Arsenal to eight points in the race for a Champions League spot. With this in mind, it was easy to see why O’Neill was so frustrated.
The former Celtic boss has said that ‘everyone was devastated’ in the dressing room afterwards because with five minutes to go ‘you should be able to see the game out’. Especially at home to a team who have been struggling as much as Stoke have on the road this season.
As for why his players seemed to switch off in the closing stages, O’Neill has admitted that there was a ‘degree of overconfidence’ shown from his side when they went 2-0 up with ten minutes or so to go.
O’Neill went on to say that he would have hoped his players could have ‘read the situation better’ because ‘the normal top four sides would have seen it through’.
On a more positive note, it is fair to say that O’Neill does still expect his side to beat Arsenal to fourth place. He says that there are ‘still plenty of games left’ to rectify the mistakes made against Stoke.
Overall, he feels that a lesson has been learned as a result of all of this. As for the gambling people amongst you, it is worth noting that Villa are still strong favourites to secure a place in the Champions League for next season.
