By Aston Villa FC

Dean Smith felt Aston Villa’s second half performance was their downfall against Crystal Palace.

The visiting Villans led 2-1 at the break thanks to John McGinn and Anwar El Ghazi, although they had a number of great chances to extend their lead.

And they ultimately paid the price in the second half as Palace hit back to take all three points.

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Smith said: “I was really, really pleased at half-time. In the first half we looked a really good team and I thought we gave them problems and were unfortunate to not come in more than a goal to the good.

“Our play was excellent. We gave them a lot of problems. We spoke about stopping crosses and marking Benteke in the box, which unfortunately we didn’t, but it was a good reaction to retake the lead.

“I thought with our play, we could have scored a few more. The second half was different. I don’t think we started well and over the last month or so that’s the inconsistencies in our game at the moment.

“They got on top, didn’t take any of their good chances and then scored a couple of fortunate goals from deflections.”

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While Smith wasn’t happy with the nature of the second half display, he also credited the Londoners for making tactical adjustments to nullify Villa.

He said: “You have to credit them. They stepped it up, they counter-pressed us better, but with the players we’ve got on the pitch, I believe we ‘ve got enough quality to play out of those situations.

“We just needed to play with the same quality we did in the first half, but we didn’t do that.”