Aston Villa manager Unai Emery felt Town prevented his side from controlling the first half of this afternoon’s 1-1 draw at Villa Park as much as they normally do with the match changing completely after Axel Tuanzebe’s sending off.

Town took the lead through Liam Delap on 56, despite having been reduced to 10 men when Tuanzebe, a three-time Villa loanee, was dismissed for two bookable offences five minutes before the break. Villa levelled through Ollie Watkins in the 69th minute.

“The first half we didn’t control the game like we usually want to do because they went man to man and were aggressive in the press. We were trying to control the game when they were fighting. It was a very equal game, but we had a good chance through Watkins,” he said.

“They didn’t have many good chances but they were getting to our box and after the sending off the match changed completely.

“After this situation, we created more and made chances. They scored a fantastic goal, making our comeback more difficult.

“After the equaliser, we had chances to score, but their goalkeeper saved some actions. We have to accept it, how they were performing.

“They avoided our chances to score and we had a lot of corners too. This point is not enough for us, but we have to move forward thinking how we can improve and get better to reduce the gap to the teams in front of us.”

He added: “They did a very good action and we conceded easily because we were in control of the game and dominating.

“They did fantastic in the action which they scored. We reacted quickly and created chances. We scored one goal but it wasn’t enough.”

Regarding Delap, he said: “He is performing very well. He is a very competitive player and he is scoring goals.”

Photo: Action Images/Reuters with Matchday Images

BlueNomad added 08:55 - Feb 16 He was a lot more gracious than most managers.
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virginblue added 09:33 - Feb 16 Class Act. Steve Wilson even tried to goad him by suggesting Palmer should have been sent off, but he didn’t rise to it.
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