There was an air of inevitability about Tammy Abraham being the match-winner against Swansea City, but the club’s former loan striker was told he should have heaped far more misery on them.
Abraham scored the only goal of the game as the Swans lost away at Aston Villa.
The young England striker – who scored eight times in 41 appearances for the Swans last season – should have had a hat-trick on Saturday, however, according to his new manager Dean Smith.
“Tammy is a handful and he knows better than me that he should have been walking away with the match ball,” said Smith.
“Tammy put in a hell of shift up front on his own and proved that he is a fine player. In the second half I thought our energy levels dropped and allowed Swansea to get onto the ball in little pockets.
“It’s a tough league but a tight league. The win gives us an opportunity to move forward.”
It was only Swansea’s second away defeat of the season, but they have now won only once in their last seven matches and they have slipped to 15th in the Championship table.
Manager Graham Potter has made a number of inspired selections this season – resting and rotating players – but at Villa Park the re-arranging of the furniture just looked uncomfortable.
It led to a misfiring first-half display, although Potter’s side found their feet after the interval and could even have snatched a draw.
“We are disappointed with the result but it was a challenging atmosphere,” said Potter after a full house of 41,000 gave noisy backing to Villa’s new manager.
“We had a lot to deal with in the first half. The players responded well and created several good opportunities but Villa had chances to put the game to bed.
“It wasn’t until the second half that we attempted to get back into the game. It was a good experience for my young side. Based on our overall performance I feel we can do better. But it is a case of work in progress.”
Following a minute’s applause for the club’s former chairman Sir Doug Ellis, Villa typically made all the early running with Swansea pushed back.
The home side made a dream start when Abraham put them ahead after only eight minutes. A high cross into the heart of a packed Swansea defence saw Abraham, who scored five goals for the visitors last season, rise above everyone else to score with a close-range header.
Despite this early goal and their dominance Villa produced very few real goal opportunities. Albert Adomah twice tested Kristoffer Nordfeldt but on each occasion the Swans keeper was alive to the danger.
Swansea, who have not scored a first-half away goal since December 2017, gave little indication of changing this trend as they struggled to produce any serious attacks with the exception of a 44th-minute effort from Connor Roberts which was well saved by Orjan Nyland.
Twice in quick succession Jack Grealish attempted to get on the scoresheet for Villa only to be thwarted on each occasion by the well-positioned Nordfeldt.
The Swans keeper was again in the right spot at the right time to save a shot on the turn from Abraham in the 62nd minute. Villa’s defence then held firm as Bersant Celina went close to grabbing an equaliser.