Matt Targett admitted Friday night’s 1-0 defeat at Southampton was “a difficult one to take”.
The Villans were undone by Adam Armstrong’s third-minute strike at St Mary’s, which ultimately settled an encounter which saw the visitors dominate Saints in the second half but unable to force an equaliser.
It inflicted a fifth successive Premier League reverse and left-back Targett was honest in his post-match assessment on the south coast.
“It’s a difficult one to take,” he told VillaTV.
“In the first half, we weren’t good enough again, second half we threw everything at it but we just couldn’t get the goal. We’ve only got ourselves to blame in the end.
“There’s only so much the manager can do, but us, as players, we’ve got to take responsibility. We’ve got to worry about our own performances and not many of us have been doing that this season.
“I put myself up there too, I haven’t been as good as I was last season. It’s difficult to take.”
Villa now head into the international period before returning to action at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
And Targett believes it will be beneficial to see the club’s injured players hopefully get back to fitness and help the side get back on track.
“It’s important we get everyone back fit,” he said.
“We know how hard it is at the moment and it’s only going to help us if we have a full squad to pick from. A few key players are missing who make a real big difference.
“Hopefully after the internationals we get them back and we can kick on because we need to, we don’t want a season like the first one when we first got promoted.
“I’m sure if we start a game like we did in the second half then we’ll be alright, but it’s having the mentality to do that.
“At the moment, we’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror and just say it’s not good enough; we need to improve, every single one, we’re working hard on the training pitch but we need to transform that into the game.
“Like I say, we’ll reflect, the players who go away, hopefully they’ll stay healthy, and then we’ll kick on from there.”
You can watch Matty’s full interview below…
