OLLIE JOLLY XMAS
Watkins won’t let goal drought get him down
ASTON VILLA boss Dean Smith says star striker Ollie Watkins will not be found sulking – despite a run of five games with no goals.
The 24- year- old has hit a barren patch after a blistering start to the season following his £ 28m move from Brentford.
Watkins began life in the Premier League brilliantly and topped Villa’s goal charts with eight in his opening 10 games.
His luck might be out but Smith will not have to put an arm around him as he prepares for the Boxing Day clash with Crystal Palace.
Smith said: “He’s not the sort of lad that needs to be picked up.
“He’ll feel aggrieved enough to go and try even harder to score in the next game.”
His blistering opening included a hat- trick in the 7- 2 destruction of Liverpool but in the last few weeks Watkins has had two ‘ goals’ struck off in marginal VAR decisions.
“I was one of the ones who said about VAR ‘ there’s a line now, it doesn’t matter if it’s a millimetre’,” said Smith.
“But they’ve been very marginal. The West Ham one should’ve been a goal or a penalty. They went the other way and they gave something it shouldn’t have been.
“To my naked eye, I thought it was onside against West Brom and it was millimetres. I thought the defender’s shoulder played him on.
“But they’re the ones with the technology. Ollie won’t need any picking up, he’ll be keen to get back on track.”
Palace go into the game after a 7- 0 thumping by Liverpool and Smith is not sure that has made the task any easier.
He said: “They have just been beaten seven by Liverpool and that will have really hurt them.
“But we feel we are in a good place at the moment and we need to make sure we are ready for a team who will be smarting.”
The last time Palace came to town was a watershed moment in Villa’s history – a 2- 0 win ending a dismal 10game run without a victory and sparking a haul of eight points from the last four games to pull off an astonishing escape.
Smith said: “It was a big game. That kickstarted the comeback from being seven points adrift and retaining our status. Now we have Palace in another big game.”