Tuesday May 30 2006 10:54
Aston Villa centre-back Liam Ridgewell has won high praise from boss David O'Leary as the youngster prepares to pen a new three-year contract with the Midlands club.
The 21-year-old has become a first-team regular in recent times, with injuries to Olof Mellberg and Martin Laursen robbing O'Leary of his more experienced options.
O'Leary said: "Liam has stood up and has been counted. All of last season he was playing with different partners and did really well.
"He has a great character about him. One thing I noticed when I first came to club was one of his strengths was his gritty determination, the will to win and that's a very strong asset.
"There were times when I would have loved to be able to rest Liam, but for much of the time I had no-one else who could come in to enable me to do that.
"When I started here we had Olof Mellberg, Ozalan Alpay, Steve Staunton, Dion Dublin and Ronny Johnsen. Four of them went, so we've been left with a young player in Ridgewell plus Mellberg.
"We bought in Martin Laursen, but he hardly played so we operated for a good while with two centre-halves and Liam did a good job."
Have your say on this article