McCarthy far from disheartened despite first loss of the season for men's U21s

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Albion were fortunate to go down 2-1 at Aston Villa in Friday's PL2 opener.

Neil Moxley

2026-08-22T09:00+01:00

Coach Jason McCarthy was pleased with a lot of aspects of Albion's performance against Aston Villa U21s. 📷James Boardman

Jason McCarthy emerged disappointed but far from downhearted after our men’s U21s narrow 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in PL2 on Friday.

The interim head coach saw his side play out the second 45 minutes almost exclusively in the hosts’ half as they tried to claw back a two-goal deficit.

Substitute Tyler Silsby set up a frantic finale with a fine finish eight minutes from time as a promising opening week ended in bitter-sweet fashion.

Victories at Millwall in the Premier League Cup and against Northampton in the EFL Trophy were perfect preparation.

But Villa netted twice in six minutes midway through the opening period to lay the foundation for victory.

McCarthy said: “I’m never happy to lose but I thought it was a very good performance.

“This is a very good Villa side and I don’t think the boys will face a much more aggressive team in terms of the intensity of their press this season.

“But we had 63 per cent of the ball and to have the control we had I genuinely think if the game had another five more minutes in it we would have earned a point.

“That’s the frustrating part. Their two goals were a set-piece and an error on our part in the build-up but we ask the guys to play from the back so we showed courage to do that.”

Albion were on the front foot in the second half after suffering a setback following two quick-fire goals from Leon Routh and Rory Wilson.

But the changes made from the bench, with substitutes Kofi Shaw and Silsby both playing a part in reducing the arrears, added to the overall impetus towards Villa's goal.

McCarthy added: “I thought we were still in the game at half-time and were causing them problems.

“We weren’t discouraged - it would have been easy for us to have been - but there were some good individual displays, particularly from the guys off the bench.

“That’s what you want from your finishers. As a player, you always want to play but it doesn’t always work that way.

“As a professional, you’re going to be asked to fill different roles. So it was good that the guys were able to give what we wanted to the game.”

Skipper Freddie Simmonds agreed with the head coach’s assessment, and said he was pleased that the team did its best to deliver the game plan.

He said: “We’ve given them two sloppy goals which is the disappointing thing.

“But we were just missing that last little bit. On another day, we could have a couple more. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but overall we have had a good week. It’s two wins out of three and there were a lot of positives.”