O'Neill Delighted - Curbs Moaning

Martin O'Neill was a happy man as he saw his Villa team pull off a decent 1-0 win over West Ham and move into 5th in the league.

He told the official site after the game:

'Obviously today's result is very, very pleasing. It was pleasing to return to winning ways after Monday night and we kept a clean-sheet. We played some exhilarating stuff in the first-half and maybe should have been more than one up at half-time. We couldn't take the chances and in the second-half I just thought the exertions of Monday night started to take their toll.'

Adding, 'I'm just delighted to have won. The crowd's reaction at the final whistle would suggest that we're doing something right at the moment.'

Alan Curbishley meanwhile spoke of his disappointment and said that the injuries to key players seems to be going from bad to worse with the news that not only are Craig Bellamy, Bobby Zamora, Scott Parker, Julien Faubert, Anton Ferdinand and Kieron Dyer out, but Dean Ashton added to the list yesterday with a knee problem.

He said to Sky Sports, 'Everybody knows the situation we're in. We've got a lot of injuries.'

He also felt that West Ham should have got a point, on possession (57-59%) he might have a point but they were hardly the most penetrating team yesterday - although it was good fortune for Villa that the useless Carlton Cole was up front, he really should have had two goals!

Curbs moaned: 'Not only have we been beaten 1-0, when I think we should have got a point, we have copped another couple of injuries so it is a disappointing day for us. You can see we are being stretched at the minute, but I couldn't ask for much more in the second half, apart from getting the goal. We worked as hard as we could and created a couple of half chances and needed to take one, but we didn't and so we have ended up losing. The squad has stood firm, we have had these problems throughout the season, but that is the third defeat on the bounce for us and we need this break and we need to pick the next result up.'

He admitted Villa 'shaded' the first half and said West Ham had the better of the second 'But we didn't have that cutting edge and we needed to take on of our half chances.'

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