Aston Villa FC

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Maloney tipped to shine

17 Dec 2007 - 08:39:27

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Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill believes midfielder Shaun Maloney can play a key role for the club in the future.

The 24-year-old has had only a periphery role at Villa Park since his transfer from Celtic almost 12 months ago and has started only one Premier League match so far this term.

However, he came on as a substitute in Saturday's draw at Sunderland, grabbing the equaliser at the Stadium of Light with a stunning free-kick.

O'Neill said: "I thought it was a blinding free-kick. He made a big contribution, because he turned the game for us and it was absolutely exquisite.

"He's capable of doing that. He did it in training last week interestingly. But you have to do it on the big stage and against Sunderland it was magnificent.

"That will give him a big lift of confidence.

"There's been a lot of rumours talking about him being homesick and I can understand it because he's never really been away from home properly, not out of Scotland. But if he settles down he can do that."