Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash slams ‘really bad’ team performance in Newcastle defeat

Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash has slammed the team’s performance in the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United, claiming that the first-half in particular was ‘really bad.’

A Kieran Trippier free-kick was enough to separate the two sides at St James’ Park on Sunday and inflict a 12th defeat of the season on Villa, the fifth since the arrival of Steven Gerrard.

Ollie Watkins thought he had equalised midway through the second-half but he was denied by a late VAR decision.

Had the goal stood, though, it would have simply glossed over what was a dismal all round performance in the North East.

And Poland international Cash echoed that but states it’s difficult to put a finger on just why the claret and blue weren’t at it on Sunday afternoon.

“Very disappointed really,” the 24-year-old told avfc.co.uk.

“I thought first half, we were really bad.

“Second-half we came out and played a little bit more better football what we’re trying to do and yeah, we didn’t really do much.

“Really disappointed but back to the drawing board, back to working hard in the week and try and put things right next week.

“We prepared the same, we prepared really, it’s tough to say. It’s a tough place to come but we need to be better as a team.

“As I said, we need to put it behind us now and we’ve got a big week to get ready for a massive game on the weekend.

“I haven’t seen the goal that we got ruled out but I’m guessing it was really tight because it took about 10 minutes for them to look at.

“But yeah, it didn’t go our way and that’s one of them things. Football.

“Doing the same things that we’ve been doing in training. Trying to work on how we’re going to play.

“We’ve got to be harder to beat, we’ve got to come to places like this and be strong.

“I know it’s obviously a tough place to come but we weren’t good enough.”

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