Brown: There were no excuses

Brown admitted: "It is pretty obvious that the better team won the game but it's not often that any of the last three goals could have been contenders for goals of the season.

"I couldn't fault our keeper for the goals.

"Normally when you let in a few like that you can normally blame someone but that might only apply to Villa's second goal tonight.

"There were no excuses. We were well beaten but now we have to pick ourselves up when we get back to league duty at the weekend."