The latest West Midlands sport headlines, from Daniel Wales.
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00:00Birmingham World reporter Charlie Haffenden has argued that Aston Villa were let down by specific moments during their Premier League campaign last season that ultimately saw them miss out on a place in the Champions League on goal difference only on the final day of the season.
00:16Yeah, I think there's kind of three periods or moments that stand out. There was one period where Villa kept two clean sheets in 23 matches. Emi Martinez was not in form of that period. The defence not in form at all. Paul Torres was out for two and a half months with a broken metatarsal. But then they managed to keep many clean sheets towards the end of the season. They went on such a great winning streak and they very nearly clinched that Champions League football at the last moment.
00:42I think if you look at 10 games to go in the season, you wouldn't have expected them to be in the fight for the top five. But they got into that position. And if they just managed to get one point against Manny Nice to Old Trafford, they would have got into it. And that is kind of the second of the three moments I'm talking about. Is that game at Old Trafford? Such a disappointment. All they needed to do was their own job because the other results elsewhere ended up going their way. However, that red card, Remy Martinez, that controversial refereeing decision, Morgan Rodgers' goal not standing, really costing Villa.
01:12And Haffenden has also made clear that Wolverhampton Wanderers will need a transformational summer to compete next season.
01:19Yeah, I think it's been an extraordinary rise under Pereira. Feels like a weird moment to say a standout because they've been relegated. But that win away at Leicester, just kind of an immediate feeling of, OK, we're back now. We can try and push on from here.
01:33You might not see much of winning against a team that ends up getting relegated. But at that point, it was a six-pointer. It was a must-win for Wolves.
01:40Then to go back up against Manchester United on home soil as well. Start to get that belief back in Molyneux and the connection, the points before the pints, the whole thing.
01:48I'm going to go to the pub and meet the fans of Wolverhampton. I think it's become a little bit, gone out of proportion a little bit now, maybe spoken about too much.
01:55I'm now mentioning it again myself. But it does show, doesn't it, the connection with the fans and how important it is.
02:00And we've seen that with the results on the pitch, ending up so far away from the relegation zone, finishing above Tottenham Hotspur, who come on to win the Europa League.
02:10I think that's a pretty amazing achievement from Wolves and hopefully they can go and kick on next year.