'Far too weak' - Pundit points finger of blame at two Wolves players in tame Aston Villa defeat

Dion Dublin has described Wolves' defensive efforts as 'far too weak' after seeing them lose 2-0 at the hands of Aston Villa. Gary O'Neil's side knew that a win over their West Midlands rivals on Saturday night would have been enough to carry them up to seventh in the Premier League table.

However, with key men such as Pedro Neto and Hwang Hee-Chan missing through injury, they were unable to take the opportunity as they slumped to a deserved defeat. Things could have been very different had Rayan Ait-Nouri scored, as he really should have done, in the first half as the ball dropped to him in space in the six-yard box.

He could only find the scrambling Emiliano Martinez, though, and from that point onwards, Wolves were convincingly second best. Moussa Diaby put the home side ahead in the game with a fine effort after getting himself on the end of a well-worked set piece.

England international Ezra Konsa doubled the hosts' advantage with a fortunate finish from a tight angle and, in truth, it was what Villa deserved as they continued to probe and dominate the contest.

Dublin, though, believes Wolves really could have done more to prevent the home side from opening the scoring in the first place, picking out and questioning the efforts of Mario Lemina and Nelson Semedo in the build-up to Bailey's strike.

"It's a great finish and they've worked on it," Dublin said as part of Sky Sports' coverage of the contest. "I think the defending is far too weak to be honest with you. Lemina and Semedo on the edge of the box as well, he doesn't get back in. It's far too weak.

"You know that something's happening, you know that Villa do those kind of free-kicks and they work on them. It's very well worked and they got away with it this time."

Wolves have the chance to bounce back to winning ways when they travel to strugglers Burnley on Tuesday night.