O'Leary upbeat despite disappointment

Aston Villa boss David O’Leary attempted to put a brave face on his team’s UEFA Cup heartache by admitting he would be delighted if the Midlanders missed out by one place next year as well.

FA Cup finalists Manchester United strolled to a comfortable 2-0 win at Villa Park this afternoon despite having Darren Fletcher and Cristiano Ronaldo both dismissed for second bookable offences in the final 15 minutes.

The result, coupled with Newcastle’s 1-1 draw at Anfield, deprived Villa of a place in the top five and qualification for Europe for the first time since 1998.

Yet despite claiming his team had been outclassed by the Red Devils, O’Leary said the campaign as a whole was cause for celebration.

“We were outclassed by one of the best teams in the top five,” he said.

“Obviously we are disappointed but we have to accept the reality of the situation. The top five clubs have finished in the top five positions and in all probability will do so again next season.

“If I am talking about a team finishing sixth in 12 months’ time, I would be delighted.”

Villa never recovered from the loss of two goals inside the first 10 minutes.

Ronaldo led the charge with a magnificent swerving effort with the outside of his right foot before Ruud van Nistelrooy slotted home his 28th goal of the campaign after latching onto Paul Scholes’ long ball.

Although Ronaldo’s darting bursts threatened more goals, United could not add to their tally and though Villa pushed forward as the visitors eased off after the break, they couldn’t get themselves back into the game.

“We got close to Europe but maybe we are not quite ready for that yet,” said O’Leary.

“We wouldn’t have been afraid of European football but it would have been a big ask because it is a whole different ball game.

“We didn’t bottle it, if we had done that we wouldn’t have got ourselves into the position we were in at all.

“If somebody had told me we would end up where we have I would have thought their brain needed examining.”

For United, seven days before their Millennium Stadium encounter with Millwall, it was the perfect time to produce one of their most effective performances of the season.

The only downside was the dismissals of Ronaldo and Fletcher by referee Rob Styles.

Fletcher was the first man off, cautioned initially for kicking the ball away, then red-carded for wiping out Thomas Hitzlsperger on halfway. Ronaldo followed him shortly afterwards in even more depressing fashion, picking up his first caution for diving, then sent off for booting the ball into the Villa net after Styles had blown for a free-kick.

“How can you analyse that,” fumed Ferguson.

“When people watch it on TV they will laugh. It was bewildering. Even the Aston Villa bench couldn’t understand it.

“The seriousness of it is that we have now lost two players for the first two games of next season.”

Fortunately for Fletcher, his second red card of the season didn’t detract from another fine performance from the Scottish midfielder, who could yet start next Saturday.

Ferguson has set skipper Roy Keane a deadline of Tuesday to resume training following his recent hamstring problems and said he would have no qualms about playing Fletcher if the Corkman didn’t make it.

“Darren has come on terrifically,” said the United boss.

“He is improving all the time and is getting stronger as well.

“Hopefully Roy will be back training on either Monday or Tuesday but if he doesn’t make it, I would have no worries about playing Darren next week at all.”