George Boateng had mixed emotions after Aston Villa Under-23s came from behind twice to draw with Reading in Premier League 2 on Monday night.
The assistant coach watched on as Tristan Abldeen-Goodridge and Finley Thorndike equalised in the first and second half respectively to earn the visitors a point.
Boateng was pleased with the team’s work going forward but felt they were lacking in other areas of their performance.
He said: “Based on the chances we created, I thought we should have won the game. But if you go into details, I thought Reading showed more character, more attitude, a willingness to compete and I felt like we relied too much on our play.
“To use that you need to work harder and I don’t think we did that well enough over the 90 minutes. If you look at the chances we created, then I think we deserved to win it.
“They scored two goals from two set-pieces, our goals were all created. Based on overall aspects of the game, I think it was a fair result.”
Boateng also praised Tim Iroegbunam for another strong display in the heart of midfield.
A former midfielder himself, the coach believes the summer signing from West Bromwich Albion can have a big impact in claret and blue.
“In the last few weeks, Tim has been one of our best players in the Under-23s,” he said.
“He’s not quite the finished article, but we do see that we’ve got an unbelievable talent. He’s one that can go really far.
“His ball distribution, reading of the game, his size and uding his body – I can see a really good all-round midfielder.
“We still need to develop him in some areas, but he’s a joy to watch.”
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