Aston Villa loanee Scott Sinclair admitted that confidence levels throughout the squad are not as high as they should be following Saturday’s loss to Stoke.

The Villans were hoping to make a positive start to life under new boss Tim Sherwood, but a late strike from Victor Moses made it six consecutive league defeats.

Villa opened the scoring on home soil courtesy of Sinclair, who joined on loan from Manchester City in January, netting his second in as many games.

However, Mame Biram Diouf equalised on the stroke of half-time before Moses fired home a penalty three minutes into stoppage time to seal a 2-1 victory.

The Midlands club are only kept off the foot of the table by Leicester, although they are level on points with Burnley and QPR, staying in the bottom three on goal difference.

Sinclair admitted that the squad is feeling low on confidence following the late goal on Saturday, but he is adamant there is enough character to turn their fortunes around.

Sinclair said: “We’ve got the characters in the squad. We’ve got the players to move forward.

“All the boys came into the dressing room with their heads in their hands because we felt we could have got more out of the game.

“Losing in the last minute was very hard to take and everyone was disappointed.

“It’s about getting those three points and that first win.

“The confidence is not as high as it should be and we need to get those three points to build on – we need to get them sooner rather than later.”