Monday, January 26, 2015

Lambert hails spirited Villa

Paul Lambert admits he never doubted Aston Villa would recover from their poor recent form to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Paul Lambert: Never doubted Villa revival

Paul Lambert: Never doubted Villa revival

The Premier League strugglers overcame a spirited Bournmouth side at Villa Park and netted two goals in a game for the first time since December’s victory over Leicester.

Carles Gil's stunning opener - on his full debut - was just Villa's second goal in 663 minutes and Andreas Weimann made it 2-1 with 19 minutes left before Callum Wilson's stoppage-time consolation for the visitors.

And, speaking after the victory, Lambert insisted he remains confident the group of players he has at his disposal are capable to going all the way in the cup.

“I always have great belief and I don’t fret over anything because I know the lads I’ve got in the team, I know they can score and I know they can do it,” Lambert said.

“The players have had a hard time and have been criticised a lot but I think they deserve a lot of credit for the way they played against a team that has won a lot of games.

“You saw in the results yesterday that many Premier league teams went out. We are through and we’ve got a chance at the FA Cup.”

Victory over Bournemouth rounded off an encouraging day for the immediate future of Villa, with midfielder Fabian Delph committing the next four-and-a-half years of his career to the club.

Delph, who missed the game with an Achilles injury, was due to be out of contract at the end of the season and had been linked with Liverpool, but a breakthrough in talks was made earlier this month and Lambert admitted the 25-year-old would have been a huge loss.

"If you lose someone of that ilk it's going to cost you a fortune to replace him," Lambert added. "It would take millions to replace him and we obviously can't do it.

"I don't know what his value is, £15million? Whatever it is we're not in a position to go and do things like that at this minute in time.

"It's great for the club he is definitely staying, it makes common sense. It's great for him as it puts everything to bed.

“I know from my own experience when you're coming out of contract your head's all over the place at times. He will be settled and he'll be a big driving force behind this club in the next few years.

"There's no way we would sell him, that's not going to happen. With the way he handles himself, there is no way that's going to happen.”

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