Gerard Houllier Post Burnley Reaction

Gerard Houllier spoke to THE OFFICIAL SITE after our 2-1 win the Carling Cup and says it was the spirit of the team that got us through.

The Villa boss added, 'Credit to Burnley. They played well. We made it difficult because we should have scored at least one goal in the first half. We created enough chances. But we didn't. It looks like it affected our confidence. In the second half we didn't play as well as we should have done. Sometimes when you don't play well, you need to be resilient, dig in, fight hard and eventually we got the reward.'

He also said he wasn't sure why the ref gave the free kick that led to the Burnley goal, same as I said in the match report, Heskey GOT THE BALL. That ref was awful though!

'Despite the fatigue and tiredness, they wanted it which was good. After that, in extra-time, you don't expect lots of football. We managed to score a second goal - by the second substitute. After that we lost a player - Marc Albrighton - which was a fair decision. He didn't touch their player a lot but he touched him. The referee did take the right decision. I wish I had that type of referee, by the way, against Sunderland - we had the same situation there and didn't get the penalty.'

Gerard also explained that he had wanted to rest some players but admitted that Heskey and Downing did make a huge difference to the game.

Houllier on AVTV:Click Here
AVTV have an interview with Sidwell, ahem... Click Here
Ciaran Clarke on win: Click Here

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