Smith: No Wembley way for my Villa flops

Raging Dean Smith told his Villa flops they have played themselves out of a jersey at Wembley after a crushing defeat at Southampton.

Goals from Shane Long and Scotland star Stuart Armstrong sealed a win that took Saints a huge step closer to Premier League survival.

But Villa remain just one point clear of third-bottom West Ham, having played a game more.

It looked like Smith’s side had one eye on next week’s League Cup Final with Manchester City.

But the Villa boss claimed some players would be dropped for Wembley after a display he branded “embarrassing”.

He said: “My feelings are

Southampton ............. 2 Aston Villa ................... 0

embarrassment with the performance. The thing that hurts me the most is a lack of fight.

“They have let themselves down with their own personal performances. We got beaten and deservedly so.

“Our quality just wasn’t there. Some of them have played their way out of a cup final.

“I try to defend the players but today was not good enough.

“We spoke about having a good start but in the first 20 minutes we never laid a glove on them.

“Last week’s display against

Tottenham gave me a lot of heart then today it was dreadful. We can’t play that bad again.”

Armstrong (below) had the easy task of slotting into an empty net in stoppage time after Villa keeper Pepe Reina had come up for a corner in a bid to help his side grab a late leveller.

Che Adams fired a long ball up the park with the keeper stranded and former Celtic star Armstrong made no mistake to seal victory.

Shane Long had fired Saints into an early lead, bundling home from Moussa Djenepo’s cross.

And they should have put the game to bed far earlier after dominating a Villa side devoid of confidence. Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was thrilled as his side claimed their first win in four matches in all competitions. Saints now look certain to avoid the drop but the Austrian just wants to keep improving.

He said: “It was very important to show a reaction after the last home game and the way we started was superb.

“We had 28 shots and that shows how dominant we were. It was a fantastic atmosphere and the guys enjoyed it. It’s important to have a fortress here.”