Aston Villa FC

• Nickname:
• Founded:1874
• Manager:Gerard Houllier

• Ground:
• Capacity:NaN

O'Neill vows to fight back

04 Nov 2008 - 08:51:30

Click To Enlarge

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill could not believe how poorly his top-four chasing side played after half-time in the 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United.

Villa could have moved up to third in the Premier League table with victory at St James' Park but an Oba Martins brace sank O'Neill's side.

The former Northern Ireland international said after the defeat: "Gabby (Agbonlahor) had a great chance and normally he scores from those.

"Had we scored, we might have gone on to win the game. We were very dangerous in the first half but we were far from our best after half-time.

"We couldn't get our noses in front. We had a number of chances and I'm very disappointed. We should have been out of sight. I'm disappointed with the second-half display but we'll fight back. We're not the finished article.

"But I'll give credit to Newcastle. After they scored their first goal they played with a lot of confidence.

"We want to play European football. We looked tired in the first half against Blackburn but we weren't tired against Newcastle. Obviously it's disappointing but we'll try and see this through."