O'Neill defiant after Villa exit
Villa boss Martin O'Neill insists he has no regrets over leaving his stars at home – despite the Moscow mission ending in failure.
His side crashed out of the UEFA Cup at the hands of CSKA Moscow on a bitterly cold night in the Russian capital as temperatures plummeted to -10, losing 2-0 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate.
A shadow claret and blues team, shorn of the likes of Gareth Barry, Emile Heskey, James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor among others, held out for an hour on the Luzhniki Stadium's plastic pitch, before Yuri Zhirkov and a last-gasp strike from Vagner Love sent the Russians through.
O'Neill's decision to rest nearly all of his first team for the forthcoming Premier League games with Stoke and Manchester City has been met with fierce criticism from many Villa fans, both out in Russia and back at home but the boss stayed defiant.
He said: "I can beat myself up well enough without having people beat me up too. I've told people what has happened, not everybody will appreciate that, I believe that. We will try at some stage to make it up to the people who made the journey out."
The aim is qualification for next season's Champions League, and only come mid-May will O'Neill know if a decision he rates as the hardest in his time as Villa manager will be justified.
He said: "I'm disappointed that we have gone out of the competition having started quite some months ago. We had played a lot of games this year.
"It wasn't a decision that was taken lightly. If I had thought about only playing young players in the team we wouldn't have travelled out on Tuesday, to prepare Wednesday and Thursday and stay here last night.
"The circumstances eventually forced us to make my decision. I am disappointed but I will have to see what the rest of the season brings to see if that disappointment is worsened."
