Villa must keep faith in refs, says McLeish

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish does not want his players to be afraid of tackling Ashley Young and his Manchester United team-mates tomorrow.

Former Villa forward Young was at the centre of a controversy last weekend, when he earned a soft penalty against QPR which helped his side to a 2-0 victory and saw Rangers captain Shaun Derry sent off.

Mason’s call is one of a number of disputable decisions recently and McLeish has also had reason to be annoyed of late, blaming a foul in the build-up for Stoke’s goal in their 1-1 draw on Monday. But the Villa chief is philosophical about such turning points.

“These are things that you can’t legislate for,” he said. “You can’t prepare the team for that. We’ll try and stay on our feet against United’s players at the weekend. Sometimes it’s not as simple as that. You guide them and coach them to try to do that but at the same time you have to make sliding tackles and fair tackles when it matters.’’