Dean Smith scouts Derby County ahead of Aston Villa’s outing

Aston Villa have beaten Bolton Wanderers on Friday evening by a 2-0 margin, but have promptly turned attentions to the Derby County game.

Aston Villa got the better of Bolton Wanderers on Friday evening following their 2-0 victory over the Trotters at the Villa Park. Jack Grealish and James Chester were on target for the hosts who pushed up to 14th in the Championship following their victory and before the other competitors played their matches.

Dean Smith was a visibly happy man after the Clarets and Blues ended a run of two successive defeats against Queens Park Rangers and Norwich City with a second continuous win on their home patch against Bolton. The manager highlighted his discontentment on just about the functional display, but also stated that the win was vital.

"“Out of the four games I’ve been in charge of, this was the least impressive performance, I thought,” he said. “But we are happy with the result and will use it to move forward. I’m not a fan of four-day build-ups when you play Friday nights. We’ll have a better one for Derby – the weekend off, a double session on Tuesday, and off Wednesday. Our pressing needs to be better because it wasn’t quite there against Bolton. But we’re dominating the game for longer periods so that’s something we can take forward.”"

The team has now been awarded with a few days off ahead of next Saturday’s visit to Frank Lampard’s Derby County. However, Dean Smith is not letting himself have any rest and has scouted the Rams in their outing against Birmingham City. His team travels to the Pride Park next weekend and the 47 year old wanted to get a first person’s insight of Derby’s strengths and weaknesses. Smith is aware that if Villa are to push for promotion then the away results have to improve and he’ll try to do just that!