Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier was disappointed to leave Sunderland empty-handed. The eighth own goal of Richard Dunne's career gave the home side a 1-0 win, and Houllier's misery was compounded by the knee injury which forced captain Stiliyan Petrov off before the break with suspected knee ligament damage. Houllier said: "I am very disappointed with the result. We should, as a reward at least, have got one goal and probably got a draw. "I thought we started well. Our morale probably went down when we conceded that own goal because we had a bit of a slump, but the second half was night and day with the first half. "We were quicker, better, sharper and created chance after chance, but unfortunately we didn't manage to put the ball in the back of the net. "This is my only regret because I was pleased with the effort of the players and their reaction. Don't forget, we also lost our captain very quickly and there were a few things that happened that probably affected the team mentally."
Source: PA
Source: PA