Dean Smith: We showed we can be a team without Jack Grealish

Villa have now won just two of the 10 Premier League matches their skipper has missed with a shin injury.

But their performance in the final third against the Baggies was perhaps their most fluid without the 25-year-old. Villa registered 24 shots on goal, including 11 on target and though they required a stoppage-time strike from Keinan Davis to salvage a point, Smith was encouraged by the overall showing.

He said: “I was happy. I thought it was a much better performance from us.

“We controlled the ball really well, moved the ball really well and caused them problems.

“You wouldn’t have thought it was Albion who were fighting for their lives. Our players showed a lot of character and showed we can be a team when Jack Grealish is not playing.

“We know how good he is but we have to be better and more consistent without him.”

Prior to Davis’s strike Villa looked destined to suffer a third consecutive defeat for the first time this season.

Though hopes of European football have faded due to their recent poor run, Smith insists his players are ready to keep fighting over the season’s final six matches.

Villa next travel to Everton on Saturday night, the first of two meetings with the Toffees in the campaign’s final month. The home fixture against Carlo Ancelotti’s team is still to be rescheduled after being postponed when Villa’s first-team was forced into isolation by a Covid-19 outbreak in January.

With matches against Tottenham and Chelsea also ahead in the closing weeks, Smith’s team can still have a big say on what happens at the top end of the table as they now chase a top-10 finish.

He said: “We have just played Liverpool and Manchester City and pushed both of them. Liverpool beat us with a last minute goal and Man City are Man City.

“Sunday was a better performance from us. I think we were better on the ball and we controlled the game.

“When you are inconsistent as we have been over the last month or two there are going to be questions over whether we are coasting a little bit. I think it showed on Sunday we are really fighting and looking to go and win the game.”