Villa's attitude pleases O'Neill
03 Jan 2007 - 09:31:05
Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill thought his side were well worth their point against stuttering Chelsea at Villa Park on Tuesday.
Villa were second best for long periods in the opening 45 minutes but responded by producing a much-improved performance after the interval, to O'Neill's obvious delight.
"I thought we showed fantastic courage and great determination," he said after the 0-0 draw.
"I was delighted with the attitude. To be perfectly honest, I've been delighted with the attitude for most of the season.
"We might have lost it with the two Chelsea chances late on, but that would have been extremely cruel. That's the way things have been going for us recently, but we got something from the game and we deserved it.
"We didn't have too many chances, but Liam Ridgewell might even have won it with the glancing header late on. For a split second I thought it had gone in.
"Chelsea had a couple of chances themselves - one early on from Drogba that he might have done better with. But overall we stuck to the task manfully and I thought we deserved it.
"The attitude we showed was exactly the attitude we showed at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. When you look at it, we've played them twice in the league and they haven't beaten us.
"We still haven't won in ten matches, but this will give the players a psychological lift as we head into two tough games against Manchester United."