Aston Villa manager Dean Smith reckons his players delivered a “statement” in beating Derby 3-0 at Pride Park and warned they will get better.
Villa’s second-half performance overpowered a Derby side who were beaten at home for the first time since August 11.
But there had been little between the teams in the first half when chances came and went with Tammy Abraham and Jonathan Kodjia guilty of wasteful finishing while Tom Lawrence lobbed over when clear for Derby.
Villa missed at least two more great chances before man-of-the-match John McGinn finally made one count when he headed in a Yannick Bolasie cross in the 74th minute.
Abraham converted McGinn’s cross four minutes later to make it 2-0 and any chance of a Derby fightback ended in the 84th minute when Conor Hourihane curled in a free-kick.
It was Villa’s first away win under Smith, who said: “Today I thought we set some very good traps to win the ball back and created some really good chances and I certainly felt the scoreline was deserved.
“I think there’s still a lot more to come from this squad, I said to them yesterday and today that there was an opportunity to draw a line in the sand about where we’re at.
“There’s quality in the squad, we’ve got 12 players going off on international duty and other players who possibly should be on international duty so it shows the quality we have and when they perform as a team we can get performances and results like we got today.
“We missed some really good chances but I never doubted for one minute we would score. I just felt we would create other chances, I could see before the game the belief in the players and sometimes that’s all it needs.
“It’s a statement to myself from the players because I’ve seen where their standards are now and I can judge them on those standards. I still don’t think they understand how good they could be and when they do they could put on a really good run of results.”
Derby manager Frank Lampard saw his team’s six-game unbeaten run in the Championship ended in emphatic fashion but had no complaints.
“The first half was close and in the second half they were the better team, clearly, and created enough chances to win it probably by more,” he said.
“If we’re not at it as we weren’t in the second half against a team with the quality of Aston Villa that’s what you get.
“They were better than us, with and without the ball. There can be a multitude of reasons, and I’m quite reflective already.
“We’ve had a great month and a game like this is actually a wake-up call and a reminder to all of us that this league is tough and if you underperform you’ll get beaten and we need to make sure those games are rare.
“Lads with character, and I believe they have got character, will come back so it’s a good test for us.
“It’s the only time I can say we have been outworked and outplayed to that level and we all have to look at ourselves, myself, the players, and say that’s a 45 minutes that we can learn more from than the last six games.”
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