Dean Smith: Aston Villa players are still fighting

Harvey Barnes and Jamie Vardy both scored twice as Villa, who remain 19th in the Premier League, suffered their 11th away loss of the campaign and their fifth straight in all competitions.

Smith said players “know the damage” that would be caused both to the club and themselves if Villa were to drop out of the top flight after just one season back.

He said: “Confidence can be harmed with a result like this and it is my job to make sure it doesn’t.

“The players have been given opportunities to prove their worth. They all know the damage that would happen, not just to the club but themselves if we got relegated.

“There are none of them that are not trying to win matches.”

Barnes opened the scoring after a calamitous error by goalkeeper Pepe Reina, while Smith then bemoaned referee Michael Oliver’s decision to award Leicester the penalty from which Vardy doubled the lead.

Oliver ruled Tyrone Mings to have handled when the ball struck near the defender’s shoulder and Smith accused the official of “gambling” on the call.

“To call it disappointing is an understatement. We wanted a performance and a reaction from the cup final and thought we had a chance.

“We have made a big mistake for their first goal. Pepe is an experienced goalkeeper, he knows he made a mistake and will understand that.

“Leicester are a very good team but we were very cheap on the ball and very careless on the ball.”

“Games are running out and they know. We seem to be making a lot of individual errors and that has to stop.

“That was nothing like (our performance at) Southampton. I could see players who were giving their all for the team and their team-mates. We have come up against a refereeing decision which goes against us and two mistakes. Tonight we turned up but just got beat by the better team.