McLeish – It Was Unbelievable, Frightening

Alex McLeish was under no illusions that his side were beaten by the better team after the Swans triumphed 2-0 at Villa Park

He said after the game “It was unbelievable, frightening.

“After such a good performance the confidence and morale was really high and we went and shot ourselves in the foot.

“We knew it was important to start fast but there were too many passes back without getting at them early.

“I thought we started quite bright but then we started the passes to the side and back – and it was a pass back which cost us.

“It was so disappointing to see us take three positive steps forward and then to take steps back, it’s that consistency thing.

“You can’t give goals like that away. That’s first and foremost. But we never really had the inspiration in the forward areas.

“I did contemplate changes, but we don’t have too many options to change the team.

“I really did feel the morale and feel-good factor from the weekend would be enough to get us through.

“I have done that before and gone on fantastic runs, you think you need to rest players but they keep going.

“I don’t think it was a mistake. Making the errors we did and not finding too many claret and blue jerseys with passes was the problem for us.

“We are better than that. I am looking for consistency, not two, three, four good games and a bad one. We’re looking for 10 or 15 good games from everyone, top games, without any real mistakes.

“Stevie is an injury risk at the moment, that was his first 90 at the weekend. He had only 43 minutes against Arsenal. He nearly got through the whole game tonight but we wanted to go 4-4-2 and have a go but keep it solid in midfield with Ciaran and Stan.

“You can’t fault the fans emotions and enthusiasm. They just want to see their team winning. To lose at home is another kick in teeth and it is for me as well. I am proud of my home records in my management career. Tonight was a huge disappointment.”