Matt Targett says Aston Villa made life easy for Leicester City in the first half of Sunday’s Premier League tie at Villa Park.
The Foxes headed into the interval with a 2-0 lead and managed to hold onto the win – despite a much-improved second half performance from the home side.
Targett felt Villa had fallen short of their high standards in the opening 45 minutes.
He said: “We huffed and puffed in the second half but just couldn’t get that equaliser. In the first half we were nowhere near good enough.
“We weren’t aggressive enough; I don’t think anyone made a tackle. They came here and found it very easy in the first half.
“In the second half, we changed it, got higher up the pitch and put them under a lot of pressure.
“It’s hard coming back from 2-0 down in the Premier League, but we gave it a good go in the second half. We had a few chances but it just wasn’t enough.”
With 15 games left to play, Villa are still well positioned to climb up the table from their current position of eighth.
And Targett was keen to stress that the team are not just happy to have improved upon last season’s points tally.
He said: “We’re not happy just to settle with what we’ve got; we want to kick on. The club’s got the ambition of getting back into Europe and us players want to be part of that.
“It’s our job to perform on the pitch and be a part of getting Aston Villa into the European spots.”
