The Villa Times. 25/10/05

Phillips is worried by our home form and wants to see improvements: 'It's generally the home form which sees you through a season, but we've been disappointing. There have been too many times we've sent supporters home disappointed. That's something we've got to address and I'm sure the manager will try and do something about it.'

Latest defender to be linked to Villa is Fulham's Zat Knight. The defender, who has played for England youth teams, has had several arguments with his manager Chris Coleman and is said to be on a final warning. Villa are keeping an eye on the situation in case he is transfer listed.

Huth is also being constantly linked to a January transfer window move with one report suggesting the deal had already been done. (Don't believe every report you read!) The suggestion is Huth now realises unless he gets some first team action, he won't be in contention for next summers World Cup to be held in his home country of Germany.

Well, the sack race seems to be well and truly on and the odds for O'Leary to be first have tumbled from 16/1 a couple of weeks ago to 6/1 now. Villa only have 2 wins in 8 and haven't recorded back to back wins in 33 attempts.

Mellberg said we let Wigan off the hook: 'We definitely have to improve. I really felt we could get a good run going after the Birmingham win and we started well and played well in the first half. Playing like we did today, we used to win all our home games but it can happen when you are the bottom half of the table and you have to work really hard to get wins and have a bit of luck.'

Bakke has told O'Leary he is happy to be the holding midfielder because Davis is too good to stop. On Wigan he said 'It was the first game I've played with 'Davo'. He's everywhere. He's up and down a lot and I had to sit a lot of the time in front of the back four. When you play with a player like Davo, you just have to let him do what he's good at.'

However O'Leary says Bakke is best forward as well: 'He is good at getting in the box because he is tall and can get headers. Eirik is like Jonathan Woodgate in that what he needs is runs of games and to stay clear of injuries.'

Moore is after more starts and says it is great to have fellow FA Youth Cup winning team mates Steve Davis and Liam Ridgewell playing with him because they understand each other on and off the field. Including Peter Whittingham (currently on loan at Derby) he says: 'Hopefully we can be the spine of the Villa first team for years ahead because we all want to improve'.

Aaron Hughes says Steven Davis could be a strong contender for the PFA Young Player Of The Year.

Aston Villa defender Aaron Hughes has suffered a recurrence of his hernia problem. The pitch is again being cited as the problem and it will be re-laid in the summer at a cost of £700 000. Lets hope it doesn't cost us more injuries this season?

Thought for the day: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they are sticking to their diets.