Yeovil fury after ‘punches thrown’ in battle with Villa
VILLA striker Jonathan Kodjia was accused of throwing punches by Yeovil manager Darren Way as the Championship side squeezed through. Kodjia clashed with Yeovil defender Garry Warren after the Ivory Coast forward came off the bench to help set up the only goal of the game for Conor Hourihane. Way also accused the officials of wrongly ruling out a first-half effort by Diallang Jaiyesimi he felt should have stood. ‘We’ve been done by the officials,’ said Way. ‘They have ruled out a goal for a push that was nothing and then the referee and linesman have missed two punches thrown by Kodjia at Gary Warren. ‘There is a protocol for complaints but I told the officlals they should forget that and just write us a letter of apology. It’s a big shame because that has
cost us a lot of money, which we could do with.’ Villa boss Steve Bruce was equally blunt in his assessment of his team’s patchy display which also required his keeper Andre Moreira to save Alex Fisher’s tame first-half penalty. Villa was outplayed for most of the match until Jack Grealish came on as a late substitute and threaded through a ball for the move which ended with Kodjia setting up Hourihane. ‘We got away with one tonight and that was simply nowhere near good enough,’ said Bruce. ‘We can’t kid ourselves we were lacking in quality until Jack came on and provided some.’