Barry sorry for letting team down

Barry had been made skipper for the day by new Villa manager David O'Leary but failed to cover himself in glory after being shown the red card for foul and abusive language.

The England international received his marching orders after a tirade at the assistant referee near the corner flag four minutes from time.

Just minutes before, Barry had earned and scored the Villa penalty which hauled his side back in the game but his dismissal hampered the chances of an equaliser.

O'Leary admits Barry let the team down with his red card but revealed the midfielder has apologised to his colleagues.

‚Ç£I think he knows he's let himself down and he's entitled to be sent off," said O'Leary. "Gareth is big enough and honest enough to admit that.

‚Ç£He's apologised to everyone in the dressing-room. He's let himself down and he's let his team-mates down.

‚Ç£I think he's a good lad. He's a winner and through frustration he's said a few things and he's not denying that. He's held his hands up and apologised to me straight away.‚Ç¥

After opening his Villa reign with a 2-1 loss to the Premiership new boys at Fratton Park, O'Leary conceded his players gave themselves a mountain to climb after Teddy Sheringham and Patrik Berger netted for Pompey.

‚Ç£I can't fault the lads for their effort," added O'Leary. "I thought they gave their all, but the bottom-line is that it's about defending well and taking chances.

‚Ç£We're not a great team that can be giving people two-goal starts. Fair play they kept going and going and we got a justified penalty. That got us back at 2-1 and we had a chance.

‚Ç£But I don't think we can afford to give people two-goal starts. We gave poor goals away and I thought we could have done better up front with some of the chances we had.‚Ç¥