O'Neill calls for Carew consistency

08 November 2009 10:28
The Norwegian international set up three goals and scored one himself and was too much of a handful for Bolton's former Villa defensive pair of Zat Knight and Garry Cahill.[LNB]The pair could not contain the power or aerial threat of the former Lyon striker.[LNB]But O'Neill wants to see that standard achieved on a more regular basis from a player who has been Villa's top scorer for the past two seasons.[LNB]O'Neill said: "John played very well. You do get performances like that from him when he is absolutely brilliant.[LNB]"But then in other matches he is not as strong. We are looking for that consistency from him. Maybe not topping that performance but maybe getting close to it.[LNB]"John accepts that himself but he was a real handful and Bolton found it hard to contain him."[LNB]O'Neill admitted he had been concerned about his side's recent heavy schedule ahead of the game, particularly after losing in the dying seconds to West Ham in midweek.[LNB]But Villa never looked back once Ashley Young had given them an early lead and Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Milner and Carlos Cuellar were also on target in addition to Carew.[LNB]O'Neill said: "I was concerned beforehand because we were really down after the West Ham match on Wednesday.[LNB]"We had played four away games in quick succession and I was worried about the energy levels, particularly for the second half.[LNB]"But the players started brightly, maintained that, the crowd were enthused by the performance and stayed with us throughout.[LNB]"To be fair we have been threatening a goal performance like that for some time."[LNB]Unsurprisingly, Bolton boss Gary Megson was unhappy with his team's showing and they have now leaked 15 goals in their last four games[LNB]All the visiting fans had to cheer was a goal just before half-time from substitute Johan Elmander.[LNB]Megson said: "I feel sorry for our goalkeeper (Jussi Jaaskelainen) because he played well and did not deserve to get beaten five times.[LNB]"Carew was strong and lively but every one of their players looked close to their best.[LNB]"Of our outfield players, none got close to what I would expect from them.[LNB]"If we can't sort it out with what we have already got, then we will need to change things a bit.[LNB]"We had talked before the game about Villa starting at a high tempo and scoring goals at the start of games and just after half-time on a regular basis.[LNB]"We said we needed to match them but it didn't happen and the manner of the third goal summed it up for us.[LNB]"Carew rolled Knight too easily and beat Cahill too easily. At 3-1 it left us with a mountain to climb."[LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk