FANS' VIEW by DAVE 'Ding Dong' HIGSON

IT'S disappointing to lose but I have reason to believe we can hold our head high because football-wise we matched Villa and created as many chances.

It could and should have been 3-3 if Bergsson had put that late chance away.

We certainly should not be despondent though, because we were playing away against the team that has now gone top of the league and in Michael Ricketts we had the man of the match. He was really up for it, took his chances well when they came along and was like lightning.

We saw another good show from Bruno N'Gotty but maybe he wasn't playing in his best position. I don't know for sure but I would like to see him at centre-back. On the downside, I thought Steve Banks was at fault on the first Villa goal and Bo Hansen and Gareth Farrelly, on his return, were largely ineffective.

Also I can't understand why Jermaine Johnson was not playing. With Paul Warhurst out and Farrelly probably not 100 per cent match fit, I thought Johnson's pace would have unsettled the Villa defence.

I must take issue though with the refereeing. Having seen what happened at Old Trafford when Per Frandsen didn't get a penalty when Veron tripped him, I just couldn't believe the ref could point to the spot when Ricardo Gardner went up with Hadji.

These are the things that call into question the consistency of refereeing - and they're supposed to be professionals!

I think our defence was all over the shop in the move that resulted in the penalty but it was never a foul by Gardner.

We had 11 Travel Club coaches at Villa and the support is getting better and better away from home.

It was not a disaster on Saturday. We are still in the top half of the table and we can improve on that if we can get things right against Everton.

MoM: Michael Ricketts