Players put arm around sorry Bjorn
EZRI Konsa has revealed how Bjorn Engels was comforted by his Villa team-mates after the costly error against Tottenham.
Engels, who was drafted into Dean Smith’s starting line-up with Tyrone Mings struck down by tonsillitis, played a major role in Sunday’s 3-2 defeat at both ends of the pitch.
With the score at 1-1, the Belgian conceded a penalty which allowed Spurs to take a 2-1 lead, Heungmin Son converting the rebound after Pepe Reina had saved his initial effort from 12 yards.
Engels redeemed himself by heading home a Jack Grealish corner to level eight minutes into the second half. He was involved again as Spurs stole all three points in stoppage time, allowing a long ball to sneak under his foot and setting Son away to fire past Reina. It condemned Villa to back-toback league defeats but the defender received plenty of support in the dressing room afterwards. “Everyone makes mistakes in football, it’s just about how you react, but he knows it himself because he’s experienced,” said Konsa. “We’re all close in the changing room so we all put our arm around him.”
Villa remain a point outside the relegation zone and travel to Southampton on Saturday.
“That defeat hurt all of us,”
Konsa admitted. “We deserved more and we could have been three up, but things didn’t work out in our favour. We showed great character to come back from 2-1 down but, unfortunately, we make a mistake. The fans were absolutely brilliant and they stuck with us, so it’s a hard one to take.”
Meanwhile, Mings has hinted he will be ready to return for the game at Southampton on Saturday by revealing he feels ‘much better’.
It will be a welcome boost for Villa’s leaky defence, who have now conceded 50 Premier League goals, the most in the division.