By Paul Brown

Gordon Cowans admitted the 3-3 draw with Southampton U21s "felt like a defeat."

Cowans saw his U21s side go three-up in the first half only to be pegged back by a free-flowing Saints team after the break.

Villa's development coach was gutted with the second half performance and wants his players to learn lessons quickly from the capitulation.

He told AVTV: "The first half hour was great. We played good football, got it down, played, created chances. We dominated the game. We did everything right, as we should do.

"We went three-up and then all of a sudden we took our foot off the gas, got sloppy and made stupid mistakes.

"To be fair to Southampton, looking at the second half they probably deserved that result. We totally caved in during the second half.

"The concentration levels need to be higher. It's just not good enough. We had a young side out but we need to learn quickly, very quickly because that second half performance was not acceptable.

"There are no excuses. We have to do better than that. It feels like a defeat. We threw it away."

Click here to watch the entire interview with Cowans on AVTV now.