It was very tough: Petrov

(GSM) – The Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov described defeat at Wembley as tough to take – but says Villa can be proud of their efforts.

The skipper revealed his disappointment after the Carling Cup final defeat to Manchester United, despite a commendable performance from the claret and blues.

But he was immensely proud of the team even though they were unable to overcome the English champions.

He said: “It was very tough. It was painful as well. Unfortunately that is the way it goes in a competition like that. Normally even if you draw a game you can say you are satisfied with a point. Not with this. You want to win and take the cup home and unfortunately that is not us.”

He continued: “We started really well. Gabby was brought down for the penalty and James took it very well. We looked very comfortable but unfortunately they got back in the game very quickly, which you don’t need to do against Manchester United.”

“In the second-half, it could have gone either way and unfortunately it went their way.” He praised the performance of his squad, “I’m really proud, the boys are proud and I think the fans are as well because we didn’t give up.”

Petrov believes the experience of a major final will drive his team-mates on to challenge for more trophies.

He added: “We have a great bunch of boys and we will keep fighting because this club wants to go forward and we want to win things.”

He hopped his team will continue the same performance in the next matches, “We are a little bit down at the moment but that will drive these players more to come back to Wembley again and try and win. This won’t slow us down. We’ll keep going and keep fighting.”