Dean Smith fumes at Aston Villa's 'awful' first half
Frustrated boss Dean Smith blasted an “awful” first-half performance as Villa exited the Carabao Cup to Stoke.
Sam Vokes’ 26th minute header was enough to earn the Potters a 1-0 victory at Villa Park which took them through to the quarter-finals.
Smith admitted his team had missed a big opportunity to reach the latter stages of the competition and revealed he gave his players the riot act at the break after a below-par first-half display.
“It is not often I get into them at half-time but I thought we were that poor in the first half,” he said.
“I’ve told the players it is an opportunity missed, that is for sure.
“It was an awful performance in the first-half, though we still had two taps in to score. The display was way, way below standards.”
Smith named the same team which had cruised to a 3-0 win at Bristol City in the third round but players were unable to replicate that display.
“The same team was rightly applauded last week after their performance at Bristol City,” he said.
“I expected to see the same but we were too lacklustre and made too many mistakes on the ball.”
