Martin O'Neill: Aston Villa must learn how to win ugly

May 5 2008

MARTIN O'Neill says his side must learn the art of "digging in" to get a result.

The Irishman was at a loss to explain Villa's poor performance against Wigan.

But he still believes that even when they weren't playing well, they should have had enough to get a result.

"It is really hard to explain. I am at a bit of a loss", he said.

"It was just really disappointing - not necessarily in terms of not performing brilliantly in the game, like we did against Birmingham City or even in the second half against Everton, but we should have been able to dug out a result.

"That is something that we will really have to learn.".

O'Neill attributed a quiet opening to nerves but always expected his side to step things up.

"I felt the first 15 to 20 minutes, I wasn't overly surprised. I thought a wee bit of nervousness might creep in.

"But I thought we had overcome that. We hadn't conceded in that time and I thought we would settle and play our own game.

"But it just never materialised.

"Not that I thought Wigan were an enormous threat, anybody can score a goal at any given stage, but I thought if we could get the first goal it would settle us down.

"Even at half-time, even though we hadn't played well, I thought the game was well within our grasp."