Aston Villa captain Tyrone Mings on penalty claim and current feeling in Villa dressing room

Aston Villa captain Tyrone Mings feels he should have been awarded a penalty during the second-half of Villa’s 1-0 defeat away at Southampton but refused to blame a refereeing decision on the loss.

Mings looked to have been blatantly tugged back by Saints midfielder Oriol Romeu but his appeals were waved away and supposedly not looked at by Stuart Atwell who was on VAR duty.

Speaking after the game, the England defender said: “I felt a tug on my shirt.”

“It felt like he let go pretty quickly, people were saying I should have gone down but it felt like he let go pretty quickly.

“He certainly stopped me getting the ball though, so, should I have gone down to have to get a penalty? I don’t think so.

“I asked the ref to check. It doesn’t seem like they did, there was no message in the stadium that there was a VAR check so that’s disappointing but listen, I’m not here to criticise the ref. I’m not here to criticise the decisions that go against us because we’ve not been good enough in the last five games and tonight - we’re hurting.”

The 28-year-old claims it’s difficult to put a reason on the abject performances of late because the players and staff are all doing the right things in training.

“We’re hurting because of the results, we’re hurting because of how the fans feel and we should, with the players we’ve got be higher up the league now,” he added.

“Obviously the league doesn’t lie and you don’t get anything for free in this league but we feel like we’re working hard.

“Like I said, we feel like what we’re doing in the week is the right stuff and that has to translate into the start of games.”