Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: J P Fear 
Date:Saturday April 14 2007
Time: 6:20PM
UK time is: 04:00:26
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Villa Back In The Top Ten!
Martin O'Neill reflected on the 3-1 win for Villa over Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium today where Villa once again only played one half but by the sounds of it, what a half!
With goals from the up-coming Villa midfielder Craig Gardner, the hot shot just returning from a shoulder injury Luke Moore (who scores for fun up t'north) and a blinder from much maligned Stiliyan Petrov, Villa have managed to get into the top ten again - at last!
O'Neill said: 'It was a great comeback. I thought the second-half performance was magnificent. We scored three goals and won away from home for the second time in a week, which is absolutely splendid. We gave away a soft goal after starting off brightly enough. That put us on the back-foot, but we got back into it with a goal just before half-time. That gave us a boost and we were a different side in the second-half.'
'Craig's goal put Middlesbrough on the back-foot and the second-half belonged to us. Even if we hadn't got the goal just before half-time, I believe our second-half performance probably would have earned all three points. I was delighted for Luke Moore. He controlled with his first touch and scored with his second, which is what Luke is capable of doing. I was delighted it fell to him, because he is one person capable of doing that.'
'It was also great to see Stiliyan on the scoresheet. I thought his whole second-half performance was good. There was a lot more energy about it and he got the goal as a reward.'
Now give us a home win, PLEASE, give us a home win!
Next up, high flying Portsmouth at Villa Park, Man City away, out final home game of the season v Sheffield United and our last game of the season at the Reebok Stadium v Bolton. How about we get all 12 points then and finish the season how we mean to start the next?!
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Villa v Boro will:
Suggested By: Mystic Mug
Win 57%
Lose 10%
Draw 33%
The Fear
Cant wait for match choice to come on - how sad I am staying in on a saturday night.
Stig
good result do you reckon you can stay and finish in the top 10
MOYES IS GOD
Brilliant ti finally relax and not look over our shoulders. A good flourish towards the end and that should help attract the right type of players. With Mr Wenger bigging us up, happy days! Like Hoss the Villain said the other day, 'we aint lost a lot this season'. Turn some of these draws into wins next season and we'll be flying!!!! UTV
Gazvilla
we could stay there, we shouldn't have left the top 10 really moyes, just too many draws and a couple of 'what ifs' this season. Next season will be a different story!
The Fear
At last good on stan, if we could sort out our first halfs and conceding the first goal we would be cruising into the top 6. aLTHOUGH WE SEEM TO PLAY BETTER AFTER A ROLLICKING SORRY hit caps lock. UTV keep on going lads.
iomvilla
We have given away at least 15 points this season and probably more by drawing games we should have won and some pretty wierd loses. By my reckoning those 15 plus points would put us well in the top four. Next year we really will be there. MON is getting it right.
Obediah
Halleluah!Now we can go into our remaining games and settle a few scores with citeh and bolton
Pking
I hope we can keep this momentum up....looking at the points total of 42 also means we've equalled our tally against last season. Can anyone confirm that all the games that we have won have been 3 p.m kick offs on Saturday????
Thegreatdando
Dando, we beat Reading in a midweek match early in the season. That's just one I can remember.
VillaYamYam
OK, so thats my plan to get Saturday 3pm kick off's foiled :P
Thegreatdando
Im givvin MON a target! 10points out of the remaining games ]finish on 50 points! UTV!
Newman
its meant to say Im givvin MON a target! 10points out of the remaining games or to at least finish on 50 points! UTV!
Newman
Newman - Surely if we get 10 points from the rest of our games, we'd get 52 points?
Thegreatdando
Yes i no but what i meant is we should aim for 10 points but aslong as we finish on 50 points and in the top half i will be happy
Newman
Laursen and Mellberg/Barry and Petrov - these partnerships have been the key - we haven`t lost many matches to my knowledge when Laursen has been fit!
ASPINALL
How things turn around in football. Only a few weeks ago we callng for Gabby to have a rest. MON stuck by him and its paid big dividends. I can't believe how good Laursen was yesterday, imagine if we could keep him fit for most of the season. He has the makings of a dodgy kneed legend like God! In hindsight, the Wigan result was good for us - the media were making it out to be great for them. The BBC in paticular has a big bias (beyond the top 4) for the smaller teams, it gets on my wick
tarzan
Hell happy with that and the highest scoring game weve had
AussieVilla
How amazing were our away fans again yesterday! All you can hear on Football First is OUR fans singing thier hearts out even when we are losing. There's obviously a bi bond being uiltu between the fans and the players. It's great to see us getting compliments from 5 live for our support. Lets capture this for all our home games too. It will be interestng to see how the players perfom for the rest of the season without having the stress of relegation.
tarzan
Has anyone noticed we seem to have won 1 televised league game in about 2 years,against birmingham and our w c game against Scunthorpe and that seems to be it.
Pking
have to agree tarzan, the away fans are amongst the best in the country, never usually get to away games but always hearing the fans makes the commentaries so much more enjoyable. Hopefully we'll get Villa Park making the same sort of noise one of these fine days!
The Fear
Guys, it's good that we're on these points but I wouldn't get too carried away for next season; I don't believe we will start hitting the heights till the season after. Fingers crossed though; I'd love it to happen.
koolbill
It depends really, the sky's the limit, and how we do next season will need to be matched by Randy Lerner's and Martin O'Neill's expectations and ambition. It has been a long season for us, what with the change in personell and management, but I think the majority of us remain confident that O'Neill can take this team further and then who knows......
Thegreatdando
I just hope we set our sights as high as possible. Some of the players linked are not players that the top 4 would choose. And I hope MON is not blinkered by some of the performances of late. The bulk of the team aren't good enough to take us on. On the Gabby front - he's prospered of late because he's being played up front. He aint a winger! UTV
Gazvilla
seem to be coming out of your slump now, 2 wins off europe, sare you dream?
EvertonMike
of course we dare, who dares, wins. we have been dreaming of this for a long time and now we have the people at the top who can make it happen, BUT even if we got relagated, we would still have the best fans and still be the finest team the world has ever seen. UTV
steff_the_villan
Of course we shouldn't get too carried away, but turn 7 of the 15 draws into wins next year and we are top 6. That's scorring 7 more goals, or not conceding 7! The margins between perceived success and failure are very small. Anybody else looking back to that Spurs game where Angel had a nightmare!!!
CLVilla
CRACKING RESULT!
Gardner has impressed, Luke has staked a claim. Gabby is improving every game and looking a threat. And Petrov has finally shown us what everyone in Scotland was talking about. Come on you lions!
spit-fire
Need to keep the bandwagon rolling, if Villa finish the season on a high it will lift the clubs profile in the transfer market, players may want to come to a club finishing 8th rather than 16th..
col8
Top ten would be really exceeding expectations for me. I noticed yesterday that Sky were saying what a massive difference in prize money we shifted (~£1.5m). To attract more top players we need regular European and cup football. Sidwell, Reo Coker, Barton and Darren Bent are players we should be after, together with a big centre half. We need to be able to dig in, the Christmas period really did for us.
tarzan
We should go hell for leather to get Darren Bent. I just watched the Everton game live in HK and he just scares defenders. None of them coped with him particularly well and he scores goals for fun. Top of my wish list!
Rawlie
good point about Laursen. could any of you trainspotters out there compile stats on the amount of times we've conceded more than a goal a game when Laursen has played the majority of the match? the man is a giant at the back.
Dee1
Just booked tickets for Man citeh away and Bolton away. Cant wait to get back on the road, havent been away since Goodison!
Stig
Gazvilla makes a very good point in that some of the players that have been linked are not being coverted by any of the top 4 clubs. I know that most top players will want european football but this is not always the case if the right contract is offered. Also a bit worried with rumours that MON is only looking to buy British while our rivals are buying world class players from abroad for half the price.
deemz
do you reckon you can make europe 7th place and make it into europe and there is always the intertoto city aint putting in for it so why not
MOYES IS GOD
Moyes.... we won't make Europe. Few clubs underneath us with games in hand and you can't depend on the Villa at the moment to be consistent. Having said that perhaps we can play with a little confidence and pick up a few points. Too late, unfortunately. Reading an article on the Boro' though who are in a similar position to us with young players. They will be worried in the summer but we will be full of optimism. You may be able to understand because I know you have had your ejits at bluescouse, but we were 1 season away from dissappearing into the Championship and not returning through lack of investment. It was that close. Being in 10th place is a result, and we're on the up!
Gazvilla
Lets face facts. We could win all four remaining games, but just as easily we could lose all four. This is a developing team, far from the finished product, so lets not get overly carried away by another fine Riverside Stadium performance.
glensider
Here here! Sidwell would be good. Hope we finish well so we ca show Andy GRAY a thing or two.
koolbill
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