Lost leads disappoint Houllier

Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier has expressed disappointment that his side twice gave up a lead in their 2-2 draw with Fulham on Saturday.

Houllier’s men led 1-0 at half-time thanks to an own-goal from Fulham’s Ghanaian right-back John Pantsil but the visitors hit back after the break through an Andy Johnson goal.

Villa’s advantage was restored by a great goal from Kyle Walker and they looked on course to claim all three points until Clint Dempsey headed home from a corner with Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel stranded in no man’s land.

Houllier said he was disappointed to have dropped points at home after twice edging in front.

“The entertainment is one side of the game, but the other side is that we feel extremely disappointed because we played extremely well first half and could have done better in terms of goals,” Houllier told Sky Sports.

“Even before they equalised we had a great move and could have been 2-0 up but once they equalised it looked as if it affected a bit of morale.”

“We managed to get back in front but I thought we only have ourselves to blame for not holding on to the result, because Fulham at the moment is full of confidence. In the second half they deserved their equaliser.”

Fulham boss Mark Hughes, meanwhile, was happy with the spirit shown by his men to keep fighting after falling behind.

“I’m pleased with the performance, obviously we had a setback of an own goal early in the first half and that could have knocked us out of our stride, but it didn’t.” Hughes said.

“We came back strong in the first half and for the last 20-25 minutes restricted them to very few chances.”

“I thought we were excellent in the way we took the game to Villa and the way we came back twice shows great character and great resolve.”

“That what we’ve been showing in recent weeks and from our point of view it’s a good result. It’s a difficult place to get a point but we did really well.”

“You see in our play we finish games stronger and that’s a quality that’s been growing since we’ve come into the new year.”