Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins has explained his reaction after scoring in our 2-1 win over Brentford on Sunday.
The 27-year-old completed our comeback with an 85th minute winner at the Gtech Community Stadium, but he was immediately seen pointing in the direction of a fan behind the goal after finding the back of the net with his header.
READ MORE: What Unai Emery said in assessment of Villa’s heated win over Brentford
It led to a heated stand off as other players became involved in the goal-mouth, while further incidents occurred late on which culminated in the dismissal of Boubacar Kamara, after Ben Mee had been sent off earlier too.
That is something Villa will have to learn from as we adapt and evolve to deal with different levels of pressure and how the opposition might provoke or look for a reaction, but Watkins was clear in explaining why he responded the way he did after his all-important winning goal.
“It was a bit of a feisty game, it all spurred from my celebration but that’s not down to a lack of respect for the fans,” Watkins said to Sky Sports, as per The Athletic.
“I love the club, the players and staff, I’ve not got a bad word to say against them. But there was one person who was abusing me all game, the celebration wasn’t to anyone else but it was directed directly at him.
“(Thomas Frank) asked me why I had celebrated like that, I’m still on texting terms with him but it’s because of that reason.
“I feel like I’ve done so much for the club and they’ve done so much for me, football’s football and you can have a bit of banter but not when it’s personal.
“If the club don’t believe me it’s up to them — but I’ve explained it to Thomas and he knows I wouldn’t do that for no reason. It agitated me and that’s what happened.”
Without further detail, it’s hoped that there was nothing more serious said by the fan that went beyond what is acceptable, but it was clearly enough for Watkins to search him out in the crowd and address it at the time.
That in turn led to the discussion with Thomas Frank after the full-time whistle as it was clear the Villa ace was trying to explain why he acted the way he did, and that side of it appeared amicable given their relationship.
Nevertheless, the most important thing is that Watkins bagged our winner to ensure we return home with all three points, and our fine run of form to start the season goes on as we solidified our spot in the top four for another week, 17 games into the campaign now.
