Villa at battle stations

Nov 2 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O'Neill has called for the right approach from his players against Derby tomorrow but has warned them to prepare for a tough afternoon against the basement battlers.

And he says any repeat of their sluggish first half at Bolton will lead to a 'long, hard day'.

Villa's home form this season has already gleaned four wins and 12 points.

That compares to Derby's away record of five losses in six matches with 17 goals conceded.

Derby have lost eight straight games over 19 years at Villa Park but O'Neill is wary of supporters turning up and simply expecting three points.

"I am not here to quell expectation, I am not here to dull anything,'' he said. "One way or the other I cannot have a viewpoint on everyone's expectations.

"It is a Premiership game. We are trying to make progress, but you still have to try to score a goal, you still have to stop a goal and you can get yourself into all sorts of trouble in matches, even if you think you are on the right lines.

"We are going to try and win the game and we think that if we click, we are capable of winning."

He continued: "I just think it will be a hard game for us. We have to approach the game properly. We have to get into the game and stay in the game.

"If we come out of the blocks like we did against Manchester United I will be delighted, and if we come out of the blocks like we did at Bolton it will be a long, hard day for us.

"We need to be ready. Sometimes people come with nothing to lose."

O'Neill admits the onus is well and truly on Villa to produce the goods against the struggling Rams.

"Against Manchester United it was eventually disappointing, obviously. We were right in that game for 30-odd minutes," he said.

"To have played as strongly and as well as we did against a team so good... circumstances saw us well beaten in the end. There's no denying that.

"I am not happy at all with the performance against Bolton. We got something out of it, and that tells you something when we battled on when we were well below par. Now it is up to us. We have got to start winning again."