Dean Smith hailed Aston Villa’s “brilliant” victory at Manchester United and spoke of his delight for the club’s supporters to be able to celebrate our first success at Old Trafford since 2009.
Kortney Hause’s 88th-minute header proved the difference and settled an entertaining encounter, although it was not the end of the late drama as Bruno Fernandes duly sent an injury-time penalty over the crossbar.
The pulsating conclusion sealed Villa’s first triumph at United since 2009 and only their second victory in the club’s last 34 league visits stretching back to 1983.
It was also only Villa’s second success against United in their last 46 Premier League meetings.
Speaking to VillaTV post-match, Smith said: “I certainly enjoyed that one.
“It’s been a long-time suffering for Villa fans and they all will have enjoyed coming here and getting the victory that we haven’t had since Gabby (Agbonlahor) won it in 2009.
“But I thought we deserved it as well, I thought we were brave.
“At times it was 4v4 at the back, we look at their players, (Paul) Pogba, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, Bruno and (Mason) Greenwood, and I thought they had smaller chances than we did.
“We blocked really well. When called upon, Emi (Martínez) has made good saves and we’ve had some good chances.
“Matt Targett missed one from the cross from Matty Cash and I think that chance just epitomised our bravery coming here and trying to get the win.”

It was a hard-fought and deserved victory for Smith’s side, who were good value for their first away win of the season and created the better openings.
Having also performed strongly at Chelsea before seeing off Everton 3-0 at home, the visitors will take plenty of confidence from another impressive display in which they were well-organised and played on the front foot to pose plenty of attacking threat.

Asked how nice it was to leave Old Trafford with all three points, Smith replied: “It’s brilliant.
“More so for the supporters because they’ve suffered for a long time here.
“Our mindset was good, in the first half I felt at times we were a little bit too passive.
“We allowed the switch of play and Luke Shaw got out too many times for my liking.
“We tweaked it at half-time and stopped the switch into the left-back, it paid dividends, I thought we started the second half really well, on the front foot and were the main aggressors.
“I think the fact you look at the subs, we’re putting Emi Buendía and Cameron Archer on to go and win the game in the last 10-15 minutes, it showed how much we felt on the bench we could go and win this.”
You can watch Dean’s full interview below…