Houllier's Half Time Magic

Barry Bannan has hailed the half time pep talk of new manager Gerard Houllier as a key ingredient in the team turning round last night's Cup match against Blackburn.

Speaking on the Official Site today Bannan said Houllier kept his nerve and showed no signs of panic during the interval, choosing to reassure the team that it would click in the second half if they kept on approaching the game as they were.

Villa were unfortunate to be behind come the break, Blackburn's goal wasn't just against the run of play it was just a phenomenal strike, a flukey phenomenal strike.

'The gaffer wasn't panicking at half time. He knew we had great character running throughout the team, he said 'remain calm, keep playing and it will come'. In the end it certainly did come.'

From the subs, to the subtle change of formation, it certainly did work. We were almost an entirely different team offensively once Heskey came on.

'The managers teamtalk worked and his subs certainly worked too.'

We've been lucky over the last few years, coming back from behind and putting in a really battling performance to do it. It's so nice to have done it this time by playing proper football.

Vital Villa on:

Vital Villa on:

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