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Aston Villa players are to blame - Stephen Warnock

25th April 2012

Aston Villa players are to blame - Stephen Warnock

Aston Villa left-back Stephen Warnock has backed under-fire manager Alex McLeish by blaming the players for Tuesday night's potentially costly 2-1 home defeat by Bolton Wanderers.

The match turned on a penalty conceded by Carlos Cuellar for his challenge on visiting midfielder Mark Davies.

But Warnock told BBC WM: "That's nothing to do with the manager.

"The lads have gone 1-0 up, are playing well and then an individual error gets them back into the game."
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Bolton then instantly scored the winner. And Warnock, who had himself put Villa ahead just minutes earlier, admitted: "The lads have got to take the criticism.

"We're the ones on the pitch. The manager prepares us as best as he can for any game. It doesn't matter whether it's Mourinho, Guardiola or any of the top managers, when you go out on the pitch it's down to the players.

"It's the biggest challenge of my career," added Liverpudlian Warnock, who came through a successful relegation battle with Blackburn Rovers three seasons ago.

"In this game, there's no time for inexperience and there's no time for learning. We've got to stand up and be counted.

"You've got to use everything you've got in your armoury to get out of this. And we need our experienced boys to rally the lads."

"We're in a massive battle now. It's the toughest battle these lads are ever going to face in their career and we've got to fight tooth and nail to get out of it. But it's one we're up for.

"It's a setback for us, but I thought we played well leading up to the goal. Then we let in a stupid goal and it knocked us conceding the goals so quickly.

"We created loads of chances, but we just need to be more clinical in front of goal. That's not being disrespectful to our strikers. It's a team game and we've all got to chip in. We need to score goals. It's as simple as that."

Villa are now only three points clear of 18th-placed Bolton, who have a game in hand. And their last three matches are from easy for McLeish, whose final day relegation with Birmingham City was taunted with such great glee on the Holte End 11 months ago.

Villa start by facing Saturday's crunch derby date with long-time chief local rivals West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.

McLeish's men then host Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, where they have won just four times in the league this season, before finishing the season at Norwich.

source: www.bbc.co.uk

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