By Paul Brown

Paul Lambert admitted frustration at the result but he was far from despondent at the performance as Villa went down 1-0 at Fulham.

Lambert was annoyed at the manner of the winning goal but pleased with the efforts of his team overall during the ninety minutes.

Villa boss Lambert is confident that things will turn in his team's favour soon, if they continue in the same manner.

He said: "It was hard to take because I don't think we deserved to lose the game.

"It's a tough place to come. I know that from last season.

"But I thought we gave as good as we got. To lose from a goal at a set-piece was really disappointing.

"I didn't think there was a lot in it. I thought it was a really close game.

"I thought we did really fine. I thought some of our play was really good. I didn't think there was much in it at all.

"I can take positives out of it. I'm not going to be too downbeat. I am disappointed to lose but, as I said to the lads, you just keep going!

"They are playing really fine at the moment. You just don't give up now. We keep going. We will be fine. We give it everything we've got to try and win a game.

"The lads are down but they know they gave Fulham a good game. If we keep going the way we have been, we will be alright.

"We are creating things and we look a threat which is important. It's important how you bounce back. We will bounce back from this one."

Lambert revealed Christian Benteke missed out on the starting line-up as a result of two gruelling games for Belgium on international duty.

He continued: "Christian has had two really hard games for Belgium during the week.

"I played Gabby with Darren because I thought it was the right thing to do and I thought they did really, really fine.

"I thought Darren deserved to come back in with Gabby. We have strikers vying to get in, younger ones too. They are pushing to get in. There are options there."

Lambert admitted he thought Benteke had equalised soon after Chris Baird's opener, only to see the well-struck effort fly wide.

Despite the miss, Lambert insists Benteke will be a "major player" for Villa in the coming weeks, months and years ahead.

He added: "From where I was standing I thought it was in. He had just come on. But he will be a major player for this club, that's for sure."

Make sure you're here to back the boys against Norwich City.