Ollie Watkins says Aston Villa lacked big-team mentality after a 3-3 draw with Brentford in a match where his side were 2-0 up.
Villa are still in fourth place in the race for UEFA Champions League qualification, two points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, but they have played two matches more.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
Aston Villa
AVL
|
35 | +21 | 67 |
| 5 |
Spurs
TOT
|
34 | +13 | 60 |
| 6 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
35 | +22 | 56 |
"I'm not belittling my team, I'm part of it. We need to somehow figure out when we're 2-0 up how to shut up shop," Watkins said post-match.
"It's frustrating. We lacked that big-team mentality where they kill games off, which is really disappointing. Maybe we just don't have that maturity yet or game intelligence.
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"These are the games we need to be winning, that's what the top teams do, they finish it off and kill it off, they're smart.
"Two-nil is always a dangerous scoreline, we started the second half really brightly.
"I was saying to the boys at the start of the half we need to start quick, which we did, we got the goal but then we relaxed, and it's poor.
"It's too easy for them to get in and score, it's really disappointing.
"We've been 2-0 up against Man Utd away and concede silly goals, and we've done it here again today. It is really disappointing because that could have been a massive three points.
"We need to focus on ourselves, obviously we've got a point there, but it should have been three."
