ERIC Kinder cut a disappointed figure after Blackburn Rovers went down to a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa in their Under-21s Premier League clash last Tuesday night.

The Pirelli Stadium encounter seemed set to finish goalless until substitute Daniel O’Brien, who was on the books of Rovers as a schoolboy, scored in the second minute of injury-time.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Rovers U21s boss Kinder said: “We never got near the levels we have reached in the past couple of weeks.

“Both teams were very average and cancelled each other out.

“It was a 0-0 game all night long but then we didn’t defend properly in injury-time and we paid the price.”

Rovers’ U18s fared better on Saturday as they swept aside Stoke City 3-0 at Brockhall to make it three U18s Premier League wins from three since the turn of the New Year.

Top-scorer Sam Joel, Lewis Mansell and Modou Cham shared the strikes.

And Rovers U18s boss Brian Carey said: “There’s been some good individual performances in the past few weeks, we just need to maintain that and keep going.

“There were quite a few chances at both ends but the main difference was we took ours and they didn’t take theirs. We were more ruthless.”