Dean Smith: Injuries take the gloss off an enthralling Villa victory

First-half goals from Wesley and Jack Grealish were enough to secure just Villa’s second away victory of the Premier League campaign, with Chris Wood’s late strike for the hosts proving only a consolation.

The win came just four days after Villa were beaten 3-0 at fellow strugglers Watford, a result which had ramped up the pressure on Smith.

Even more impressively, it was achieved in the face of adversity which included Grealish having seen an early goal controversially ruled out by VAR for a marginal offside call.

Villa then saw Wesley and goalkeeper Tom Heaton both leave the field on stretchers in the final 20 minutes of the match after suffering knee injuries.

“It was a hell of a response to our last game because the performance was not very good,” said Smith.

“We spoke a lot about the Watford performance and we can’t see that again.

“We haven’t been great on the road this season, our points tally is there to see, so we knew we had to come here today and be prepared to roll our sleeves us.

“I could see the look in the lads eyes before they went out that they were ready, in the first half especially we were excellent.”

The return to fitness of Tyrone Mings saw Villa switch to three at the back and they proceeded to dominate the opening period.

Burnley were improved after the break but the visitors saw the game out relatively comfortably after Wood had pulled a goal back with 10 minutes remaining.

Heaton was injured while trying to keep the ball out of the net, with Wesley having left the field 10 minutes earlier.

The Brazilian’s goal had broken a 12-match scoring drought in the Premier League and Smith admitted the injuries took the shine off what was otherwise an excellent day for his team.

He said: “Both of them felt their knee, we’re not sure what the prognosis as of yet obviously, we will let them have a scan and see from there.

“Wesley felt something following the tackle from Ben Mee and Tom’s was when he was trying to claw the ball out the top corner.

“It’s too early to know but our medical staff are with them now.

“Does it take the gloss off? Yeah, totally. They are two big players. But it was a tremendous performance from the boys today.”