Aston Villa made light of manager Dean Smith’s touchline ban with a 2-0 win at home to Newcastle on Saturday that added to the pressure on ...
Aston Villa made light of manager Dean Smith’s touchline ban with a 2-0 win at home to Newcastle on Saturday that added to the pressure on the Premier League strugglers.
Ollie Watkins’ early goal put Villa ahead, with Bertrand Traore doubling their lead shortly before half-time.
Victory at Villa Park saw the Birmingham club move up to eighth place in the table.
“I thought we were good especially in the first half,” Smith told Sky Sports. “We overplayed a little in the second half and could have scored a couple more.”
Smith was in the stands as punishment after accepting a FA disciplinary charge for using abusive and/or insulting language towards referee Jon Moss during Villa’s 2-0 defeat by Manchester City on Wednesday.
The Villa boss asked the officials if they had got juggling balls for Christmas after City midfielder Rodri ran back from an offside position to tackle Tyrone Mings and pass for Bernardo Silva to score the opening goal.
“We have had three tough away games and we only got one point, there were some debatable decisions in the Manchester games but today we did well,” said Smith after Saturday’s success.
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