Aston Villa Football Club News

• Nickname:The Villains
• Founded:1874
• Manager:Alex McLeish

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O'Neill stands by Agbonlahor

14 Mar 2009 - 14:09:20

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Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has backed striker Gabriel Agbonlahor to get back to top form following recent struggles in front of goal.

The 22-year-old has only scored once since mid-December, but O'Neill thinks that the England international is still well worth a starting spot.

He said: "Gabby has been a bit unlucky on one or two occasions. He probably should have scored against Chelsea, when Petr Cech made a save at the right-hand post and he had a good chance against Stoke towards the end.

"Overall I'm not displeased with him. I think he's done great this season. Like most strikers, of course he thrives on goals and, the more you have, the more confidence you have about things.

"When he played on his own up front for three months, he put an unbelievable amount of energy and determination into that and I thought he improved as a player because of it.

"The irony is now he's getting a bit more help with another centre-forward beside him, maybe one or two of the chances he feels he should have put away have gone begging.

"But he'll rectify that and I'm not talking about taking Gabby out of the firing line."