Aston Villa held Sheffield United to a 0-0 draw at Villa Park to kick-off the Premier League's Project Restart project.

A massive controversy occurred in the first-half as Orjan Nyland fell across the goal-line after claiming the ball.

However, goal-line technology did not signal for a goal - with referee Michael Oliver being left unaware after the tech failure.

VAR did not intervene - and both teams fell to fatigue in the second-half.

That, however, left Villa head coach Dean Smith with plenty to discuss following the conclusion of the match.

Here's everything that Smith said after Villa's draw with the Blades...

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You dominated the game but probably should have lost?

I'm not sure we'd have lost because a goal against can normally drive you on.

I thought we were the better team, we controlled certainly the first 30 minutes but we got away with one, certainly, with the technology not working. But I've been in the other position where technology has not been good for us at times.

The important thing for me was we wanted to come out and show a good performance and I thought we did that.

What do you take from that?

We made some really good chances and the goalkeeper, you've got to give him credit, made some really good saves as well. We wanted a good performance, I think people can see we've used the period well of not playing.

We needed to be better defensively, I thought we nullified a lot of what Sheffield United are about and defended really as a team. And we weren't just reliant on Jack Grealish, for instance, I thought it was a really good team performance and deserving of more.

Did you enjoy playing behind closed doors?

I didn't like it. It's not a good product. There's not an atmosphere. However, I thought we looked like a better team. Like I said, it was a good team performance. I thought Douglas Luiz was excellent.

What do you make of HawkEye explanation?

We've spoken to the players about their body positions when defending crosses and got them in great positions which stopped HawkEye seeing the goal.

Concern that goal-line tech isn't infallible?

That's always going to be the case in football. There's always going to be some error, we have human error from officials and we have to accept that.

There's going to be error in technology as we've seen with VAR this season and now for the first time ever with HawkEye. We just have to accept it and move on, there's nothing else we can do.

Sheffield United's players react to English referee Michael Oliver (L) after no goal was called from a free kick during the English Premier League football match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United

Consider letting Sheff Utd score unopposed to make amends?

No, not at all. Sheffield United wouldn't have done that for us. Overall, we missed some really good chances.

We wanted a really good performance and, what's evident, is we've used the period well. We nullified them. We go away disappointed even without that controversy. We've shown today that we're in a good place and we're ready to fight for our lives. We're in recovery mode now. There's a lot of belief in this group.

A little bit disappointed?

We're the ones who go away disappointed even with that controversy. The fact that we are just shows that the performance was good. We need to maintain that level. Nobody is going in with any form.

We've all had more time off than we would have in the close season of a normal season so nobody knew what was going to happen, nobody knew what the form was but I think we've shown we're in a good place and we're ready to go and fight for our lives.

We can drive the players on from the vantage point (us coaches) have got in the Trinity Road Stand. There's a lot in the game management now as well, especially being allowed to make five substitutes.

A member of staff watches on wearing a face mask as Jack Grealish of Aston Villa takes a corner

How was McGinn's first game back?

I expected to bring him off earlier than 75 minutes, to be honest. It was good for him. When Ollie Norwood got the wrong side of him I thought it was time to bring him off.

Keinan Davis did well?

He did. It was a really good performance. He's a player who me and John Terry speak about regularly. He's done really well in practice games and I thought he led the line really well. He was a millimetre away like Gazza was (in 1996) to scoring when El Ghazi crossed it.

Injury updates?

Bjorn Engels has an Achilles issue. He's not going to be around for the next week or two at least. You're going to pick up injuries. It's a long period without action and training.

These players were only allowed an hours' exercise when lockdown started, they're athletes. Frederic Guilbert's the same, he's injured (knee). Danny Drinkwater should be back training at the end of the week. He picked up an injury against Leicester last week in the friendly.

Will you involve any young players?

We only get 40 tests per club. What we'd like to see is an increase in testing to allow more young players to play. I've had six with us.

Tyreik Wright has sustained a knock and he's out for a bit but it's been a great learning experience for them. They've expressed themselves and, if they do better than some of the lads we've got, they'll feature. That's how I work.