Express & Star

Gareth Barry insists Villa must rally around keeper Scott Carson after his latest mistake cost the team.

Carson appeared to hesitate as Michael Chopra lifted the ball over him after Zat Knight allowed the ball to bounce in Saturday’s 1-0 defwsat to Sunderland.

Barry admits Carson’s mistake against Portsmouth last week may have played on his mind.

“Last week may have been in the back of his mind, but we’ll take the goal conceded as a responsibility of the whole team, not just Scott,” said the skipper.

“I haven’t seen the goal again, but maybe it was a case of he thought about coming and stopped again, I’m not sure.”

Barry believes Sunderland cashed in on Villa’s case of the jitters after their two previous performances.

“Sunderland would have looked at our last couple of games – a home draw against Middlesbrough and an away defeat and they’d have said ‘keep the Villa fans quiet, keep a clean sheet and the fans will get on their backs’ – we’d do the same,” he said.

“It was important we tried to get to get the first goal but a couple of efforts went the wrong side of the post and they took their chance.”

Barry added: “I’m not sure we’ve over-achieved so far. We’ll have a look at ourselves at the end of the season and where we finish will be where we deserve to be.”