Villa's three-match winning sequence in the NextGen Series came to an end in Trondheim as the race to qualify for the knockout stages from Group 3 was thrown wide open.

"The first one was a difficult one for the goalkeeper Calum Barrett to take but he made a couple of saves after that to boost his confidence.

"The second was a horrible deflection and the third one we should have defended much better.

"But overall we probably didn't play well enough to win the game.

"We played well in spells and for 15 to 20 minutes we moved the ball around well as we know we are capable of.

"I can't fault the effort but if you score two goals away from home in Europe you would hope it would be enough to get a result.

"You could say we were missing a few players but I like to spin it the other way and say that it gives an opportunity to other players," he added.

"A major positive we will take from the game is that we finished up with four 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old on the pitch.

"The experience they will take from that in the long term is a real plus point for everyone involved in the academy."

Sean Verity.