Shay: 'Villa There For The Taking'

... it's at the front and back where we lack the quality. And goalkeeper Shay Given sees it from both sides.

Given: 'Possession doesn't mean anything if you don't score goals. We didn't really do ourselves any justice and were very, very disappointed in ourselves.

'It was even worse because Obafemi Martins was making his debut. At half-time we said, `We've got to give it a go,' because you might as well lose by three or four as not give it a go. But to go down to 10 men with half an hour to go is very difficult.

'They created a few chances after that as we tried to push forward.

'We didn't defend so well against Villa, but we've only played two league games so you could hardly say we're better or worse than last year. But we're always looking to improve defensively. We got off to a very bad start and at 2-0 at half-time I don't think they'd really opened us up that much.'
'You want to stay unbeaten for as long as you possibly can. But we weren't worried about them, the owner, the manager. We were just concerned about ourselves. I don't think we were outplayed or outclassed by a better team. I felt Villa were there for the taking.'

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.