Stoke City manager Mark Hughes and his Aston Villa counterpart Tim Sherwood gave their verdicts on Saturday (3rd October) following a 1-0 win for the Potters at Villa Park.


Marko Arnautovic's second-half strike gave Stoke a second successive win in the Premier League and keeps Villa in the relegation zone.

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Hughes, Stoke City manager:

"They never really opened us up to any great extent. I thought our back five were excellent today. Obviously there was a big threat to deal with today in terms of (Rudi) Gestede but we didn’t really allow him to have an effect on the game and even when he had the half chances, I thought we dealt with them very comfortably. In the end we've won by one goal but I think in all honesty we did enough to win the game more comfortably than we did. The number of good opportunities where we didn't quite pick the right pass because if we had of done we would have probably won more comprehensively. But as it is we'll take the win and we're in good heart at the moment."

SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Sherwood, Aston Villa manager:

"Poor performance and poor result. Disappointed all round. I thought it was a draw to be honest. I think a fair result would have been a draw. I think both teams were poor but unfortunatley we got nothing out of the game. We go back to work and try and do our best to put things right."

SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Sherwood, Aston Villa manager:

"I'm still learning about the guys as well. We're eight games in and I'd rather be in the bottom three with eight games in than in the bottom three with eight games to go."