Gerard Houlier encouraged by Aston Villa performance after Everton draw

EPL,Gerrard Houllier,Manchester United vs Aston Villa(Getty Images)

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Aston Villa boss Gerard Houlier was satisfied with a point against Everton after maintaining Goodison Park is a difficult place to play.

The under-fire Frenchman praised his side’s teamwork and combative spirit in securing an important point against David Moyes’s men.

“I thought we fought hard enough to get the three points,” Houllier said.

“In fairness though, I’m disappointed for the players because of what they gave in the game but it could easily have been a loss.

“It’s always difficult to get a point at Everton because it’s not an easy place to play.”

The Villa manager revealed his half-time words of encouragement and expressed his reluctance to change his side during the interval.

“I said we are a team, so when one person makes a mistake the whole team has got to react together,” the Frenchman said.

“I didn’t want to change anything at half-time, I just wanted to give everything. We came back well in second half, we were a bit more competitive.

“We need to change a bit in the second and show a bit more fighting spirit to get back into the game which we did early through a fantastic goal scored by Darren Bent with great movement.

“Then we scored the second goal perhaps at a time when they were expecting to score their second goal.

“I was a bit disappointed that we conceded the second goal because it was just eight minutes that we held the lead for.”

Villa were fortunate not to concede through Jermaine Beckford’s strike in the second half which appeared to cross the goal-line. However, none of the match officials were certain enough to award it.

“It’s impossible from where I was but none of my players said anything about it,” said Houllier.

When told it was clearly over the line, the Frenchman remarked: “That’s why we call for technology. The great debate has come back again.”

After a string of poor results and a growing popular belief that he is unfit to lead Villa, Houllier is confident the tide has shifted after the draw.

“I think the fact that we won the second half and in terms of effort and spirit and in terms of quality particularly in defending I think we were very good and I was proud of the players,” he said.

“They showed character and also togetherness which is important.

“Taking into account that the morale and confidence is not at its highest because of the defeats on the trot – and we still managed to win the second half 2-1 – we have to take that back with us because we fought hard.

“It is not an easy place to come and get a result but we nearly did it.”