BILLY Barr admitted he wanted more from his side in the final third as Blackburn Rovers were knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties by Aston Villa at Ewood Park on Wednesday night.

Rovers and Villa couldn’t be separated after 120 minutes, before the visitors progressed in to round four after a 7-6 win on penalties.  The first 13 penalties of the shoot-out had been scored, only for substitute Joel Steer to miss from 12 yards to hand Villa victory.  

Barr, who couldn’t face watching the penalty shoot-out, was disappointed for the Rovers youngsters as they were cruelly knocked out despite dominating large parts of the game. But the Under-18s boss wanted more from his players in the final third, as both sides really struggled to create many chances from open play.

“I’m disappointed for the lads,” Barr said.

“Neither side looked good enough to open the opposition up.

“I thought we dominated possession wise but the final third was a problem.

“The things that we had worked in before the game, we didn’t seem to get it right.

“We wanted more from open play.

“We’d done certain things in training on where we thought that we could win the game.

“There were a few of them in tears, but the message we’re giving them is we need to learn from this, and learn that when teams sit deep, how to break them down.

“That’s all part of their development.

“Some come out with credit even with defeat.”

Rovers went close in the first half when Matthew Makinson saw an effort saved, while Charley Doyle flashed a header wide in the second-half.

Goalkeeper Ben Ascroft denied Villa forward Jordan Cox in the second half, but chances were at a premium throughout the night, despite Rovers doing much of the probing.

But Barr said it is now all about learning from the experience as their FA Youth Cup adventure ended at the fourth round stage.

 “The second years it’s all about decisions, but the first years will go through it all again next year,” Barr added.

“We’ve said that they need to make sure they learn from this, even the ones who weren’t involved, they’ve seen what it’s like when everyone is here watching.

“The ones that weren’t involved will have to learn from it just like those that were.”

On the shoot-out, he added: “I didn’t even watch penalties, I never do, so I was inside.

“I’m not sure any of them will have gone through that before, especially in a game of this magnitude.

“It is different, and we tied to replicate it in training with the walk from the centre circle, and two teams, but when it’s actually live and it’s to win the game it’s that bit different.”