O'Leary unhappy at penalty as Villa go down to Reds

Aston Villa boss David O’Leary criticised referee Steve Bennett for changing the game against Liverpool by awarding a penalty.

Bennett penalised Liam Ridgewell for appearing to hold on to Peter Crouch towards the end of Liverpool’s 2-0 Barclays Premiership win at Villa Park.

Steven Gerrard scored from the penalty spot and Xabi Alonso added a second to wrap up the points for Rafael Benitez’s side.

“I think it was definitely not a penalty but it changed the game,” O’Leary told Sky’s PremPlus.

“He couldn’t wait to give decisions but we’ve got to bite the lip on it. It wasn’t a penalty – end of story. The referee cost us the game – end of story.”

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez understandably took the opposite view.

“For me it is clear - it was a penalty,” he told Prem Plus.“When you catch the player it is penalty. But the most important thing for me was not the penalty, it is how we played.

“We played well, we were organised and compact and created chances and we deserved to win.”

Substitute Peter Crouch failed to score again despite a good header which he planted straight at Thomas Sorensen but Benitez was still happy with the striker’s performance against his former club.

“People say ‘Crouch must score’ but he must do things like he did today; keep the ball, win the ball in the air, win the penalty and he had a good game.”