Dean Smith frustrated by Aston Villa performance in Preston draw
Dean Smith expressed frustration at Villa’s performance after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Preston.
Ahmed Elmohamady’s second-half own goal cancelled out Tammy Abraham’s opener at Deepdale and means Villa head into the New Year five points off the play-offs.
But Smith’s men were in truth fortunate to escape with the point, with Preston twice hitting the woodwork in a game they dominated for long periods.
And Smith admitted: “We didn’t deserve to win with the amount of big chances we gave away.
“Defensively, we weren’t great. On the ball, we weren’t great.
“The first-half, elements of our game were OK. But every time we turned the ball over we were not aggressive enough in our defending and they put the ball over the top of us and created a chance.
“They put a number of balls like that over the top of us. It was a straightforward ball over the top which we didn’t deal with.”
Preston hit the bar in just the second minute through Jordan Storey, with Villa keeper Orjan Nyland also pulling off a fine save to deny Graham Burke, before Abraham headed the visitors in front on the stroke of half-time.
John McGinn missed a good chance to double the advantage early in the second period, before Elmohamady deflected Daniel Johnson’s cross into his own net to level the scores.
Preston hit the post through Tom Barkhuizen, though the best chance of the closing stages fell to Villa substitute Birkir Bjarnason, who missed from a yard out.
Smith added: “We could have nicked it. They have had big chances but we have had big chances.
“John McGinn has had a chance with a header at the start of the second half which could have put us 2-0 up and then BB has had the one at the end from a yard and somehow managed to put it over.
“I think if we score either of them we would have gone on to win the game. But you have to give credit to them, they deserved to score a goal with the chances they had.
“They got in behind us too many times today from straight balls. They are very much a counter attacking team.
“They get it and they put balls in behind you very quickly for willing runners. We did not deal with that well enough.”
