Villa assistant Calderwood relieved after tense win

Posted Sunday, February 04, 2018 by PA

Aston Villa survived a nervous performance to narrowly defeat Burton 3-2 and maintain their strong promotion challenge.

Villa twice built up a two-goal lead but Burton kept snapping away only to concede a narrow defeat which keeps them locked in at the bottom of the table.

Villa’s assistant manager Colin Calderwood, standing in for Steve Bruce in the post-match press conference, admitted: “We are very happy with the win although we were a little nervy near the end.

“We got the job done but it proved the danger of the opposition irrespective of their league position.

“We conceded a couple of strange goals which is unusual for Villa and hopefully it will not occur again.

“We got nervy when there was only one goal in it and you need your experienced players, who rose to the occasion.

“But credit Burton for the way they kept themselves in the game. It typifies what the division is all about. The bottom teams will keep going at you and the enjoyment in this division is that it is unpredictable.

“Burton never gave up and they are a credit to honest football. They punch way above their weight and they were never out of the game although we thought we should have controlled moments of the match better than we did.”

Scott Hogan’s fifth goal of the season gave Villa a first-half lead and Albert Adomah notched a second only for Ahmed Elmohamady to put through his own goal.

Star man Jack Grealish notched Villa’s third seven minutes from time only for Liam Boyce to score Burton’s second with three minutes remaining.

Burton boss Nigel Clough bemoaned the Brewers’ bad luck.

“Given our present circumstances I do not think the team could not have done any better,” he said. “I think it was a brilliant performance.

“What we will try to do for the next 16 games is to play as we did against Villa. Losing in midweek to Fulham was our lowest point in terms of performance – the display against Villa was completely different.

“We will try and play with a smile on our face even if we are bottom of the league.”

Clough was impressed with the first outing of on-loan Jacob Davenport – a player he had never seen in action until he acquired the youngster’s services from Manchester City a few days ago – and also picked out Boyce for praise.

He said: “It is lovely to get in a fresh face. It was his (Davenport’s) debut at just 19 and it was a big day for him. I thought it was wonderful that he should put in such a good performance.

“The icing on the cake was getting Liam Boyce on the pitch and getting a goal. It was wonderful for him and us but left me thinking that if we had him for 20 other games, we would not be in our present position.”