Gregory counts cost

Varteks players celebrate victory over Villa

Aston Villa are counting the cost in terms of finance and wasted labour as they crashed out of the Uefa Cup at the first hurdle.

Villa qualified through the back door after winning the InterToto Cup, at the end of a campaign which started in mid-July.

But the toils of those six matches now count for nothing after Croatia's NK Varteks delivered the knockout blow for John Gregory's side.

Angel was left out

Villa won 1-0 in Croatia, but the damage was done by a 3-2 first leg defeat at Villa Park.

Chairman Doug Ellis had estimated that it would have been worth £5m to the club if they had gone all the way to the final.

Ellis admitted in the build-up to the game that it would be "a major disappointment for the club to fall at the first hurdle".

Gregory surprisingly left out in-form Juan Pablo Angel, sending out a new forward partnership of Croatian Bosko Balaban and David Ginola, who is more accustomed to playing on the left flank.

But Balaban was ineffective and was removed in favour of Angel at half-time.

Gregory said: "It needed to be an attacking side and somebody has to step down. You can't play them all.

Balaban's a big star in his own country

Aston Villa manager John Gregory

"If results don't go your way then we as managers get questions about the team - which rarely happens if we win convincingly.

"The idea was to play Ginola up front because we felt he would cause the opposition a lot of problems and create opportunities for us.

"I thought it was an ideal situation for Balaban to come in. He's a current Croatian international, a big star in his own country, and I was hoping he would make an immediate impact."

He said: "We got the win we wanted but not the margin we wanted, although the way the team went about their job was fantastic. They gave everything from the first whistle to last.

"But without doubt we cost ourselves the tie with the match at Villa Park last week when we conceded three goals. The one we gave away in the last minute has proved to be very costly.

"We gave ourselves a massive job to do in Varteks and it is disappointing because we were expecting to have a good run in the Uefa Cup this year.

"But we will cling onto the fact that we won as a crumb of comfort and I'm confident we can bounce back on Sunday against Blackburn in the Premiership."