Martin O'Neill praises Aston Villa fans' attitude

Apr 9 2008 By Bill Howell

MARTIN O'Neill has praised both his players and the Villa supporters for refusing to throw in the towel after the club's disappointing recent run.

Villa banished the blues in spectacular fashion at the weekend against Bolton after taking just a point from their previous four matches.

And O'Neill admitted today nerves were very definitely frayed heading into last Saturday's game.

"When you lose a few games, confidence is down," he said.

"I wouldn't know any training ground or dressing room not affected by results.

"If you win matches, you're up - if you lose a few, you'll certainly be down. I don't think you can disguise that."

O'Neill got one of the club's better performances this season as his side clicked from the off against Gary Megson's strugglers. "It was important for us to win to get back to winning ways but the way it was achieved was really terrific," he said.

"It keeps us in the race, which was the most important thing at this stage of the season because we didn't want to be petering out.

"It was a great response by the players but also a great response from the crowd.

"They could have been forgiven for thinking we'd drop off but there were 38,000 people there and the performance was excellent so I really couldn't ask for much more."