Tyrone Mings admits Aston Villa failed to deliver the 'basics' in a disastrous second-half capitulation against Newcastle United. The Magpies backed up their statement victory at Tottenham with a comfortable 4-0 home victory over Villa on Saturday.
Eddie Howe's side were largely frustrated in a stop-start first half that was punctuated by lengthy stoppages while Emiliano Buendia and Emiliano Martínez both received treament. However, the hosts broke the deadlock in added time from the penalty spot with Callum Wilson.
Newcastle's number nine grabbed the second shortly after the restart, and this opened the floodgates for Howe's side to dominate the visitors. Goals from Miguel Almiron and Joelinton quickly followed, and Jacob Murphy and Wilson both came close to netting a fifth with efforts which hit the woodwork.
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It was a crushing reality check for Villa, who had earned a 4-0 win in their last outing against Brentford in their first match since Steven Gerrard's sacking. Former Newcastle target Unai Emery will begin work at Villa Park next week, and Mings feels the visitors showed 'naivety' in their attempts to chase the game.
He told the club's website: “It was never going to be easy, but if you go 2-0 down and you still want to chase a goal, I think it shows naivety, you can’t concede so many goals in a quick spell like that.
“It’s basics, like I say, you come away from home and you have to be hard to beat, you have to be hard to break down, you have to fight, you have to do all the ugly things.
“That’s not me pinning any blame on anyone, I think we win together and we lose together. It’s a bitterly disappointing day.”
The results rounded off a near-perfect October for Newcastle, who picked up 16 points from a possible 18 to catapult themselves into the top four. The Magpies have not lost on home soil since April, and Mings accepts Villa 'thoroughly' deserved the heavy defeat.
The England international added: “I think we were in the game for large spells, obviously we know what it’s going to be like coming here, it’s a very difficult place to come. But after last week, full of belief, full of confidence, we felt like we could cause them problems.
“The penalty is so unlucky, but coming out for the second half we knew we had to stay in the game, we had to be hard to beat, we had to be hard to break down. And we weren’t; so we thoroughly deserve what we got.”
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