Barclays Premier League: Aston Villa and the late pressure

Aston Villa felt a late pressure from the Hull City with a 2-1 loss.

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert: "In the first half we were outstanding, the game plan and the tactical aspect of the game was outstanding and against a good side - the three at the back system is a hard one to play against."

"I don't think if we'd scored another couple of goals, anyone could have begrudged us that. That would have made the second half a little bit more at ease."

"Gabby [Agbonlahor] today was, especially in the first half, unplayable. His running power and his speed were excellent but the movement in the midfield was terrific."

"It's been a terrific start for us and hopefully we can keep it going."

Hull manager Steve Bruce: "For how good our second half was, our first was just as bad. We gave ourselves such a mountain to climb with the first-half performance in particular - it was arguably the worst I've seen us perform."

"I can't remember us performing so badly. In the second half we made a game of it and on another day we could have nicked something. But I still can't get over how bad we were in the first half. We gifted them goals, we made mistake after mistake and we didn't get above a jog so how do you expect to win a Premier League game?"

"We had so many people who performed so badly, it was a shock to me but maybe we're getting carried away with all the nonsense that's being written about us and all the rest of it. It's been a wake-up call."

"We can't wait until the second half and have me ranting and raving like some sort of lunatic to have a response. I wish we could get them in tomorrow and start working with them straight away but we can't, we've got 11 or 12 away [for international duty]."

(Source: Barclays Premier League official website)