Downing Praises Spirit Of Team

Stewart Downing has praised the spirit and resilience of the Villa team for digging out 3 points against the Baggies at the weekend.

Speaking on the Official Site Stewie was delighted to grab his 6th goal of the campaign and set us on our way to victory, but he was more delighted with the spirit shown by the squad in holding out for the win when Albion heaped tons of pressure on us in the final 10 minutes.

'It's nice to get goals from a personal point of view, but the key is we got a good win. If we're being honest, it simply wasn't good enough, we were disappointed with the Liverpool performance. But against West Brom we fought, we scrapped, even when it got tough we kept going.'

The final 10 minutes especially where not exactly kind on the backsides, and it didn't improve once Albion pulled one back but defensively apart from the all too regular sleepy moments we were a touch more steely than we have been in previous games and the lads seem more inclined to throw their bodies in the way of shots which is what we had become used to.

Maybe it was the turning of the corner we've been after, Wigan will tell us a lot, but apart from our very worst performances (ie Liverpool) we have been creating enough chances to win games but been woefully sloppy at the back.

If the back 4 can find some form and consistency, we are obviously going to pick up more points than we lose irrespective of whether Houllier changes our style of play.

The Baggies win should give them a lot of confidence and belief, and now we have to take that through and build on it.

Vital Villa on:

Vital Villa on:

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.