Martin O'Neill warns Aston Villa of Sunderland's fighting spirit

Dec 14 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O'Neill has warned that Sunderland will "fight like mad" to make life difficult for his Villa team.

Far from continuing to smart after their recent 7-1 thrashing at Goodison Park, O'Neill believes the late 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Derby County has given the Black Cats a belief that they can compete with anyone on their own patch.

"The best way to come back from that seven-goal defeat at Everton was to win and they won," O'Neill said. "They beat Derby 1-0 and that's as big a lift as you're likely to get - you don't have to get seven the next week to get some points on the board.

"And to score so late, which is their trademark, is better for them."

Sunderland fell to a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge last weekend and remain in the bottom three.

But O'Neill added: "I watched their game against Chelsea and I thought there were really good periods for them.

"Make no mistake, they can compete, especially with that crowd behind them and they will fight like mad.

"That atmosphere when their supporters get going - it's certainly a fanatical crowd."

Villa won their first Premier League game at Sunderland last time out in November 2005, when Kevin Phillips, Gareth Barry and Milan Baros were on target in a 3-1 win.

O'Neill added: "We will go to Sunderland and try to win if we can. But genuinely, that will not be easy because the one thing Sunderland have is loads of energy.

"Talk about teams scoring at the end of matches and Sunderland are doing it with regularity.

"And that's real credit to them that they keep going right to the end."