The Holy Trinity: Aston Villa conclusions from Europa League semi-final loss at Nottingham Forest

Villa were beaten 1-0 in the first leg, leaving them in a hole with 90 minutes of the semi-final tie left

This one hurt. It wasn’t surprising but the moment passed by ungrabbed and the first leg was lost in an infuriating manner that was wholly avoidable.

Aston Villa have it all to do in the second leg of their Europa League semi-final against Nottingham Forest. Losing 1-0 at the City Ground on Thursday wasn’t the worst possible outcome but it was significantly worse than it might have been if Villa hadn’t done something incredibly stupid.

Forest have been in terrific form and played relatively well on the night but the fact is they needed a penalty to take the advantage and Villa gave it to them. The third possible result, a Villa win, never looked possible for a second. Now they need to win by two next week.

Losing Amadou Onana to another injury was a sour twist and Ollie Watkins could easily have joined him on the sidelines.

A first-half tackle on the Villa striker by Elliot Anderson should, I think, have resulted in a red card. The bigger injustice as far as I’m concerned was the extent to which the referee allowed Watkins and Villa in general to be wrestled off the ball while giving a load of soft free kicks the other way.

Here’s your Holy Trinity of match conclusions: