Dean Smith finds encouragement in Aston Villa fight back despite losing ground on play-offs
Dean Smith took heart from Villa’s character after they battled back from two goals down to draw with Hull.
The hosts were staring down the barrel of a second straight defeat when goals from Jarrod Bowen and Evandro put the visitors in command.
But James Chester gave Villa hope with a goal on the stroke of half-time, with Tammy Abraham’s 17th of the season then completing the comeback.
The draw saw Smith’s men fall seven points behind the Championship top six but the boss found encouragement in their response after a poor start to the game.
“We made mistakes in the first-half and there were arms going up in the air,” he said.
“That body language isn’t going to help them with the supporters, if you’re not going out and showing that you’re a united team.
“We spoke about that at half time and we showed a togetherness after the break. We showed a lot of character to come back into the game and we should’ve gone on to win it.”
Smith acknowledged his team must get better defensively after their fragility at the back was again exposed.
Villa have now conceded 16 times in their last six home league games and are winless in five on their own turf.
“We’re giving poor goals away, that’s for sure,” he said. “The first one we don’t deal with, it goes through (goalkeeper) Lovre Kalinic and he’ll want to do better on that.
“The second goal we’re building up and Albert and Tammy both come towards the ball and we give it away. We’ve got to do better in those transitions.
“It was a poor goal to concede, and then it’s a hard place to play here, especially when you haven’t won for a while.
“I thought the lads showed an awful lot of character to perform like that in the second half, and by having good body language, good attitude and good energy, the supporters got behind them. In the end, we got our just rewards.”
