Morgan Rogers offered an honest assessment of Aston Villa’s 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace.
Rogers, having seen an earlier effort ruled out for offside following a VAR review, struck in the 52nd minute to cancel out Ismaila Sarr’s first-half finish.
It was the England international’s 12th goal of the season, although it was not enough to secure a share of the spoils as the Eagles quickly regained their advantage courtesy of Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Sarr’s second of the night, a coolly-taken volley, was followed by substitute Eddie Nketiah’s close-range effort in injury time.
Reflecting on the reverse, Rogers said: “I thought in the first half we did pretty well, they scored probably against the run of play a bit, which isn’t ideal.
“But I think we did well to get back into the game.
“Obviously, I had the offside, the goal that didn’t count.
“And then I was lucky to get the one I did in the second half.
“Then we probably didn’t stamp our authority on the game, it was a bit too easy for them to get through us.
“They created chances and scored, they deserved the win.
“We just weren’t good enough. It was one of those games.”
Defeat in south London, a seventh in our last nine trips to Selhurst Park, ended Villa’s four-match unbeaten run.
Unai Emery’s side will now switch their focus to Friday night’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Cardiff City, before travelling to Belgium for the first leg of the club’s UEFA Champions League last 16 tie against Club Brugge.
Villa made four changes for the encounter against the Eagles as they continue to juggle a busy treatment room and a congested schedule, while Emi Martínez was withdrawn at half-time on Tuesday night.
Asked whether it all had an impact, Rogers said: “I don’t think we’re going to make excuses for that.
“I think we’ve got a good enough squad, a big enough squad.
“Last week we were talking about how good our subs are off the bench and so on and so forth.
“So, no, we’re not going to make that an excuse.
“We just weren’t good enough, it’s as simple as that.
“We need to look at ourselves, go again, we’ve got games coming thick and fast in different competitions. We need to take our eye off the Premier League a bit and concentrate on other things.
“Games are coming thick and fast now, we can’t dwell on it, and we have to move on as a team.”
