Steven Gerrard was frustrated with Aston Villa’s first-half performance as they fell to a 2-1 derby defeat at Wolves.
Villa found themselves behind after just seven minutes as Jonny rifled home an early opener for the hosts, before Ashley Young’s unfortunate own goal made it 2-0 shortly after the half-hour mark.
The visitors improved after the break and Ollie Watkins delivered fresh hope when he converted an 86th-minute penalty.
Yet it was midlands neighbours Wolves who took bragging rights at Molineux.
Speaking to VillaTV post-match, head coach Gerrard said: “Obviously disappointed, three defeats on the spin doesn’t feel good.
“Again, I go away frustrated because the boys have only given us a 45-minute performance.
“Second half we improved. Individually, collectively, we created more chances, we could have snatched something at the end of the game, we throw everything at it.
“The boys turn up for a walk in the second half and realise they’re in a derby game.
“But in the first half we were nowhere near good enough, we were second best and the game could have been dead and buried.
“I'm really frustrated with our first-half showing.”
Villa posed a much sterner test after the restart and asked plenty of questions in attack.
Philippe Coutinho and Watkins both drew impressive saves from Jose Sa while the latter sent an effort agonisingly wide having been played clean through.
And Gerrard felt that only made his side’s first-half display more disappointing.
“In hindsight now, you’re full of regret because you realise that if you put a 90-minute performance in and you approach the first half like you did the second half, I think there was definitely a result there for us,” he added.
“I didn’t see a big gap in quality, first half I did because we weren’t good enough.
“Second half, when we come into the game and showed the real Aston Villa, I don’t think there wasn’t anything in the game, arguably we probably edged it.”
You can watch Steven’s full interview below…
