Souness Praise For Midfielders

Last updated : 20 March 2004 By Colin Rae

"Some of our football has been very good but our defending has been very poor and why we are in our present situation," he said after the 2-0 win.

"I thought we did a lot of good things against Villa. Our midfield won the battle and I thought we had a good afternoon."

Souness admitted that he is far from blameless from what has happened at Blackburn over the last week. He said: "I am 50 and I have learnt that I should not be playing five a side matches.

"I would swap anything to be a player again, but I will no longer be involved in five a side matches.

"I've made mistakes and I wish they had not happened. I regret some of the things I said to Andy Cole and if we both found ourselves in the same situation we do things differently."