Dean Smith: Aston Villa threw away points

David McGoldrick’s first-half strike was enough to earn the Blades, rock bottom of the Premier League, just their fourth win of the season.

Villa hit the bar through Ollie Watkins but struggled to carve out chances, even after the hosts had been seen Phil Jagielka controversially sent-off just before the hour mark.

Smith said: “We shouldn’t be leaving with nothing. We have thrown points away by conceding a sloppy goal and then not taking chances or creating better chances.

“It was a very, very frustrating game. We had the best chances in the first-half and went in a goal down.

“I can’t remember (goalkeeper) Emi Martinez being worked much at all but we conceded a really poor goal.

“The sending off was a big change in the game and after that we were camped in their final third but never showed enough quality on the ball.

“We had a couple of big chances but they were made by the players themselves. The quality of players we had out there, we should have created a lot more.”

In another VAR controversy, Jagielka was initially shown a yellow card after bringing down Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi.

But referee Robert Jones upgraded it to red after checking the monitor and deeming the defender had denied a goalscoring opportunity.

“It was one of those that went our way but we did not take advantage,” said Smith.