Emery lauds 'fantastic' Villa despite late disappointment

BIRMINGHAM, England : Manager Unai Emery was full of praise for Aston Villa despite conceding a sickening last-gasp equaliser against Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday in a match his team should have buried long before.

"We played a fantastic match," said Emery, whose team had a goal disallowed, saw a string of chances saved by Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers, and finally got the breakthrough in the 76th minute only to concede at the death.

"We played I think the best minutes since the start of the season. The first half we controlled the game. At the beginning we were dominating and creating chances," Emery said.

"The second half we started even better than the first half. We were pushing, dominating, creating chances. The goalkeeper was saving a lot of times."

Emery, who completed two years at Villa this week and has seen the Birmingham side flourish in the Premier League and Champions League, said his tiring team just took their foot off the gas in the final minutes, but he could not be too cross.

"We deserved to win, we dominated. Today we only got one point and of course we deserved three points, but football is like that," he said.

"I am disappointed a little bit because there is still work to do. It was a very good match, but the result was not the result that we need. Why? Because we have to get even better.

"We scored the goal, fantastic, but we didn't manage the last 10 minutes. We didn't manage because they are a very competitive team always playing to win corners and chances, force mistakes. They scored in the last moment and we have to accept it. But we were fantastic again, really I'm very happy.