Defiant Sherwood not worrying about Villa axe

Ian Watson
Tim Sherwood: Former England midfielder sacked by Aston Villa on Sunday

Tim Sherwood: Former England midfielder sacked by Aston Villa on Sunday

Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood insisted he does not fear the sack but acknowledged his future was out of his hands.

The boss is under serious pressure after Swansea snatched a late 2-1 win at Villa Park to condemn the hosts to a sixth straight Barclays Premier League loss.

Villa are second bottom of the table and will fall to the foot on Sunday if Sunderland beat Newcastle in the Tyne-Wear derby.

Andre Ayew struck three minutes from time to seal victory for the Swans after Gylfi Sigurdsson cancelled out the opener from Jordan Ayew – Andre’s brother.

But Sherwood is not worried about the axe.

“No, it’s out of my control,” said Sherwood, whose side are four points from the safety line and winless since the opening day of the season.

“I can only control what I can control, and on Monday I’ll be working as hard I’ve done since I came to this club.

“We’ll stay in the Premier League but we need to improve, obviously. It’s not going to happen overnight.

“It ain’t an easy job this but it’s one I love and one I’m not going to give up very easily.”

Sherwood joked he will avoid a call from the board if it wants to sack him.

“I’ll just turn my phone off,” he said.

Sherwood admitted, though, his players are lacking confidence after they failed to build on Ayew’s second-half opener before sinking to a killer blow.

He said: “We can’t do any more as coaches and managers. We’re working as hard as we possibly can and the players can’t do more regarding effort. They can only give us what they can give us. We can’t turn them into superstars.

“It was a toss-of-the-coin game. That’s how close it was and that’s how close all of our games have been.”