Sherwood not worried by Villa team leak

Tim Sherwood was unimpressed by claims from  Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett that he knew the Aston Villa line-up a day before Tuesday’s League Cup derby.

Villa claimed the local bragging rights with a 1-0 win over Birmingham – Rudy Gestede netting the only goal of the game.

It came after the hosts were booed off the field at half-time at Villa Park, where Birmingham were on top with a little help from some inside intelligence according to their manager.

“I felt, in the first half, tactically we got the game spot on,” Rowett told reporters afterwards. “I actually knew their team yesterday funnily enough, and we did a little bit of work against it, got some runners into some great positions first half.

“That often happens – you often get a little tip-off. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re not. We haven’t chased that.

“I felt they did themselves a lot of justice; I don’t think there are too many players who would come off and say Villa have won the game easily.

Speaking at his own press conference, Sherwood labelled Rowett’s disclosure as “strange”.

He said: “Well done. Of course it’s not [worrying]. Did he tell you who it was? It’s interesting why he even mentioned it. It’s strange.”

Sherwood stated that Villa’s first-half performance was as a result of him instructing his players to use a direct style – a take Rowett did not go along with.

“I have heard Tim said he purposely let us [dominate] in the first half so they could change tactics in the second half but I’m not sure a tactic of getting booed at half-time would particularly be a good one,” he added.