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Leandro Bacuna fears his big chance to impress Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert might have passed him by.

The Dutchman started his first Premier League game of the season in the 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace but was left annoyed at failing to end Villa’s goalscoring drought.

Free-kick specialist Bacuna had three opportunities to score from dead-ball situations but he failed to convert any of his efforts.

Ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup clash with Blackpool. he quipped: “That’s why I sit on the bench in the next match now!

“I’m still practising my free-kicks because I need to keep working hard and the chances will come.

“It felt really good to be back and now I try to do my best and try to get more and more minutes and show what I can do.

Photos from Villa 0 Crystal Palace 0

“It’s always frustrating to sit on the bench for every player. You just need to keep working hard and your chance will come.”

Until New Year’s Day, Bacuna was the only regular from last season not to have started a Premier League game this term.

His performance in the middle of the park was average on a day where the rest of the team struggled to create and take their chances.

With Ashley Westwood still out injured, Bacuna will given sole responsibility on set-plays and he came close to scoring with two of his three efforts from outside the box.

The former Groningen ace reckons it’s only a matter of time before Villa start scoring regularly again.

“I think we started the game really well. We played from the back and tried to slowly go forward and tried to create chances and we had to finish it off and were a bit unlucky,” he said.

“But we didn’t lose. We’re doing well. We try to play from the back and I think it needs to pay off.

“As a team I think we’re doing well and we’ll start to score some goals.

“Blackpool are a Championship club so maybe we can get some goals there and that can help us get started.”

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