Stephen Kelly admitted that Fulham’s sluggish display at Villa Park was largely down to the fact that they couldn’t cope with Aston Villa’s persistent pressing.
The Whites made little impression in the first half – and, although there was an improvement after the break – their winning run came to an end in the final minute when Andi Weimann secured Villa’s first home league win in four months.
The Irish full back told the Fulham Chronicle: “We didn’t get into the rhythm of our passing game as much as we have done in the last couple of weeks and it was a little bit lacklustre from us. We rectified it in the second half and got ourselves back into the game, and their energy wore down a little bit, but the manager was disappointed with the way we played.
“Credit to Villa, they pressed us really high up the pitch, which disturbs the way we like to play. We like to get it at the back and build up from there and it forced us to kick it a lot more than we like to. That’s not our style and not the way we like to play.”
