Tom Heaton: Faltering Aston Villa need to stick together

The England international goalkeeper believes it is vital players do not let their heads drop after suffering a sixth loss in eight Premier League matches with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Sheffield United.

Villa, who remain 17th in the table, now host Liverpool in a Carabao Cup quarter final tomorrow night before consecutive fixtures against the three teams below them in the standings.

Heaton said: "There's no doom and gloom. We were frustrated on Saturday because we didn't do what we wanted to do.

"But is is barely 14 days ago we went to Old Trafford and did really well on the back of a good win over Newcastle.

"It's important not become too negative. It's time to dig in, stick together, work hard on the training pitch and enjoy Tuesday night. The same applies to next week.”

Two second half goals from John Fleck condemned Villa to defeat at Bramall Lane, their miserable afternoon summed up when Jack Grealish missed a late penalty.

Dean Smith’s men have now lost seven of their nine away fixtures back in the top flight.

"When you come away from home in the Premier League you need to be solid, compact and better on the ball,” continued Heaton.

"We weren't great with the ball first half but we were resilient and we worked hard.

"That's something we had worked on in the week - giving less space, being a lot more compact, and I thought we did well.

"After the break we were just a bit loose defensively and didn't track runners. We were a bit more expansive but not effective with the ball.

"We need to get back to doing the right things consistently. We can't look too far ahead.

"Liverpool is the focus and then Southampton at home. Day-to-day we need to keep doing the basics.

"There's certainly a lot of ability in the dressing room, we just need to make sure we do the right things.

"We need to believe in what we're about and hopefully we can kick on.”