Tyrone Mings: Aston Villa can't let season fizzle out

A run of just one win in seven matches has seen Dean Smith’s team lose touch with their rivals in the race for European football.

Mings is determined not to lose sight of the bigger picture, which has seen Villa transformed from the team which survived in the Premier League by only a point last season.

But neither is the England international defender ignoring the disappointment of recent results, warning team-mates they cannot afford to let their heads drop.

He told VillaTV: “It is frustrating and it hurts. We have to continue to show up. We have to continue to be positive. We have to continue to be good team-mates. There is no hiding from that. We can’t let our season fizzle out. We can’t let what has been a poor run of results define our season.

“I think every team goes through it. Until recently we had a really good season and had not known too much adversity. We had games we lost and then came back and won or got a positive result.

“Certainly recent results have not been great. We are a team who are evolving and growing, a team that are learning. But we absolutely have to stay positive and make sure the season does not fizzle out.”

Villa, who have been without talisman Jack Grealish for the last six matches due to injury, looked well placed to push on after winning 1-0 at Leeds in late February. But they have taken just two points from the last four matches, with Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham leaving them 10th in the table, seven points adrift of the top six with 10 matches left to play.

Mings continued: “You look at our season as a whole and it feels like a cop out to say we are in a great league position.

“We should be higher. There is no hiding from that. We should have picked up more points in this last chunk of games.

“But the league doesn’t give you anything. To get higher, to get into the top four or top six, you have to show a level of consistency that we are trying to find.

“It is tough, absolutely it is tough. We are in our second season in the Premier League, which people always say is the toughest because energy and enthusiasm usually gets you through the first. Sometimes in the second you take your foot off the gas.

“I don’t think we have done that. I think we have been a really progressive team, a really brave team in games.

“We started Sunday night with a real energy about us, trying to make a statement and put Tottenham on the back foot. We are going in the right direction but there is no disguising the fact it wasn’t good enough in terms of the result.

“The two goals we conceded were avoidable and that is what hurts the most. If you play like that and the game is that tight you have to walk away with a 0-0. But I’m absolutely proud of everything we are doing at the moment.”