O'Neill pleased with latest Villa outing

Aug 2 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O'Neill was well-pleased with the performance of his Villa side in the 2-0 win at Stoke City, although he admitted they were perhaps over-elaborate at times in their football.

The Villa boss was relieved to see his squad come through unscathed at a time when he is still looking to finalise a number of incoming transfers.

"The players are playing with plenty of confidence. We've come off the trip to America and Canada in fine fettle and good spirits. Now we want to keep it going," he said.

Villa face Inter Milan on Saturday (3pm) before a midweek trip to Walsall ushers in the League opener against Liverpool in just nine days' time.

"Stoke played very competitively but we had a lot of decent possession and passed it around nicely, especially in the first-half," O'Neill said.

"In fact, if there's such a thing, we maybe over-passed it at times. But there's a cutting edge to our game and I'm absolutely delighted with that."

Patrik Berger and Gabby Agbonlahor scored the goals that were enough to secure what turned out to be a relatively comfortable victory and make it three-out-of-three in pre-season.

The Villa boss added: "Patrik Berger scored a really good goal in the first half and Gabby scored a magnificent goal when he came on in the second-half."

Villa could have added more as Craig Gardner, in particular, caught the eye at the Britannia Stadium. But on the other hand, they had to survive one or two hairy moments to maintain a first clean sheet.

O'Neill added: "I was very pleased. I thought we played some really decent stuff, especially in the first-half. We kept possession of the ball and we were reasonably bright going forward.

"We're getting closer to the start of the season and there's a fine dividing line between getting properly fit and trying to avoid injuries. Luckily we're injury free from last night."