Martin Laursen pulled no punches after the defeat to Sunderland, admitting: "That was not good enough!"

He told www.avfc.co.uk: "I don't think we played well enough to get anything out of the game. It was so frustrating.

"We wanted to do better because we saw the Portsmouth result and realised everything was set up for us. We wanted to do well at home for the fans after the Middlesbrough game but we produced a performance that was just not good enough.

"This is the lowest feeling of the season. It wasn't just the result that has annoyed us but it was also the way we played. We couldn't pass the ball and we didn't have many ideas. We just couldn't get into a rhythm on the day.

"We need to improve against the lower teams here at Villa Park. When we have the ball, we need to produce something better than we did against Sunderland."

Laursen also spoke of the difficulty of putting things right at Bodymoor Heath because several players will now be away on international duty with their respective countries.

"The manager will be very disappointed that his players are not able to put things right on the training field. It must be terrible for him, having to wait to the see the players once they are back from international duty.

"He would want the whole week to prepare for the Manchester United game but we'll only be getting back on Thursday. There won't be many training sessions before the match. The manager will be disappointed with that."