Villa's Friedel questions referee bias

Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel has questioned referee bias towards the big four after the claret and blues were on the receiving end of another poor decision at Wembley.

Martin O'Neill's side were denied a blatant penalty early on in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea when John Obi Mikel fouled Gabby Agbonlahor inside the box – and it proved to be a defining moment in the game as the Blues went on to win 3-0 with three late goals.

The incident came just five weeks after Phil Dowd failed to send off Nemanja Vidic for a red-card offence in Villa's Carling Cup final defeat to Manchester United.

A dejected Friedel was left unimpressed and insisted another bad decision had cost them.

He said: "I thought we played so well and again we probably got hard done by a refereeing decision. It makes you wonder if the referees have a hard time making decisions against the big teams on the big stage.

"People can go back in the archives and pick out the instances and I'm sure they'll be there."

But Friedel felt Villa restored some pride following their 7-1 drubbing by Chelsea a fortnight ago and has urged them to now turn their attention to making a late push for fourth.

He said: "I thought we showed a lot of character given the lack of it we showed against Chelsea the last time. We matched them in every department.

"We got really unlucky on the first goal and the second and third were us pushing forward trying to get an equaliser. It wasn't a reflection of the game. I think we can hold our heads up high but be bitterly disappointed that things didn't go our way.

"We will take it on the chin and we've got to regroup. We have a very important game on Wednesday night against Everton."