Defiant Dean Smith won’t write off Aston Villa's top two hopes despite Leeds collapse
Defiant Dean Smith refused to give-up on Villa’s automatic promotion hopes despite Sunday’s devastating defeat to Leeds.
The Championship leaders pulled off a stunning second-half comeback to win 3-2 at Villa Park and leave the hosts sitting 14 points behind the top two at the season’s midway point.
Villa had looked on course for a statement win when goals from Tammy Abraham and Conor Hourihane put them 2-0 up inside the opening 17 minutes.
But Leeds fought back after the break, levelling it up through Jack Clarke and Pontus Jansson, before Kemar Roofe won it at the death.
Villa now head to Swansea on Boxing Day and Smith, when asked if their hopes of the top two were now over, said: “Maybe to others, but I am only going to look at the next game. We are halfway through the season. We will deal with it and move on. I am not looking at the top two, I am looking at the next game and will see where that takes us.
“After another 23 games, I am hoping we can reach the top two. There is a gap there, but we have played Norwich and Leeds and both games I don’t think we deserved to lose. If we can put a run together, who knows where we will be?”
The defeat snapped a seven-match unbeaten run for Villa, who are still five points adrift of the top six. After training today, Smith will grant his players the first portion of Christmas Day off before they travel down to Wales in the evening.
He said: “We welcome the game because we want to get back to winning ways. This was the end of a seven-match unbeaten run and we need to start again now.
“We are not where we would like to be at this point of the season. We have only picked two points up in the last three games and it should certainly be a lot more.”
