Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has praised the effort shown by his players during their opening-day defeat to West Ham United.

The Birmingham outfit enjoyed the majority of possession at Upton Park, but they were consigned to a 1-0 defeat by Kevin Nolan's first-half strike.

"We started the game really well but never really created as much as we wanted to," Lambert told BBC Sport.

"I couldn't fault the effort. We will pick ourselves up and go again. There is a long way to go and we'll see what happens."

Villa's next fixture is at home to Everton on Saturday, August 25.

Written by
Robert Summerscales