Alex McLeish praised Aston Villa's fans for their patience as the claret and blues left it late to show their Premier League class with a 2-0 win over League Two Hereford United in the Carling Cup.

Apart from a few grumbles midway through the second half, the majority of Tuesday night’s 21,050 Villa Park crowd – the Bulls brought 3,000 – kept their frustrations to themselves.

McLeish admitted his cast of understudies appreciated the support from fans after taking their time breaking down a team 88 places below them in professional football.

“You kind of expect the crowd to be disgruntled because they’re looking for you to bang in the goals, but they were very patient,” said McLeish.

“We thank them for that. At the same time we’ve got to take it on the chin and understand if we’re not producing that, just like any fans at any other club, they are entitled to voice their opinion. We’ve got to handle that.”

McLeish was pleased by the professionalism of his players, led by stand-in captain Richard Dunne, but also saluted Hereford for doing manager Jamie Pitman proud.

“We didn’t quite get the breakthrough and I thought Hereford did their manager proud,” he said.

“They played very well, they were excellent. They kept in the game, they grew with confidence.

“You’re always worried about a defender maybe being over casual and making a mistake and opening the back door.

“They had a couple of close things even if they didn’t trouble us too much.

“But the professionalism of my team was brilliant, I think exemplified by the captain. I thought he was outstanding and showed he’s got the same attitude whether it’s Manchester United or Hereford United.”

McLeish would ideally have taken off Darren Bent before the 73rd minute to rest the star striker ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Wolves at Villa Park,

But the Villa boss kept Bent on as his team searched for a goal which never arrived until striking substitutes Nathan Delfouneso and Andreas Weimann made a late impact.

“We were actually hoping we could take him off after 45 and get one of the young boys on,” said McLeish.

“Benty was looking to try and get on the goal trail.

“I felt he was devoid of service in the first half, we were just to far away from him and we tried to change it second half.

“We’ve liked what we’ve seen in training since coming here with Andy Weimann and Nathan Delfouneso and we felt if these lads have got aspirations to play for Aston Villa they should be able to handle the opposition and they did, they were great. Weimann was lively and Nathan got his goal.”

McLeish dismissed rumours linking Luke Young with a move to Queens Park Rangers, insisting Villa have had no contact with the Premier League newcomers.

He also insisted neither Barry Bannan nor Jean Makoun would be allowed to leave before next Wednesday’s transfer deadline despite speculation linking them with Blackpool and Olympiakos.

“Ian Holloway asked me about Bannan a couple of months ago maybe, I said ‘no’,” added McLeish.

“I was assessing the squad, we’re too thin really to let anybody go.

“That goes for Jean Makoun too because if Jean went the clock is ticking down and I don’t know if I could bring somebody else in.

“It would be dangerous to lose some experienced players.”