O’Neill delighted with progress

Martin O’Neill hailed his Villa squad after they achieved European football for the first time in six years.

Villa clinched an Intertoto Cup place by finishing sixth with 60 points – their highest tally since 1996-97, when they finished fifth, with most goals scored (71) since they won the title in 1981.

Their tally of goals was only beaten by champions Manchester United and Arsenal.

“We’ve ended the season with 60 points and in most years that would have been enough to qualify automatically for Europe,” said the Villa boss.

“Last season we would have walked it and even seventh place got automatically into Europe 12 months ago. So from that aspect it’s disappointing but it shouldn’t mask the fact that we’ve come on leaps and bounds from last season.

“To do it with the smallest squad in the Premier League has made it particularly impressive but that’s something we would want to address in the summer.”

Villa’s two goals confirmed their place as the Premier League’s top-scoring away side.

O’Neill felt his side played some of their best football of the season just after half-time, when they created several chances.

“There was a lot in the game which suggested the match was a microcosm of our season,” said O’Neill. “There was lots of attacking football and we had a great spell just after half-time where we were unplayable – just fantastic.

“We had a period of 10 or 15 minutes where we were just scintillating, really terrific. In a lot of ways this afternoon epitomised the season for us.

“I felt we were unlucky not to score a couple of goals at that time to put the game beyond West Ham because at 2-1 it was always in the balance.”

O’Neill was relieved West Ham’s equaliser didn’t cost Villa a UEFA Cup place as Everton beat Newcastle to put fifth place beyond them anyway. “Had that equalising goal been really costly – if Newcastle had gone on and won after equalising at Goodison Park – that would have been particularly disappointing,” he said.

“I had heard before that that Everton had retaken the lead and so overall, even though we conceded late, it didn’t affect the outcome in the table.

“We didn’t quite get the result we wanted but we created an incredible number of chances – especially in the second-half. It was a good afternoon in terms of a spectacle.

“Sometimes we’ve come up short and sometimes we’ve had disappointments but overall I can’t praise the players highly enough. It’s been a fantastic effort.” O’Neill praised the character of his players and revealed West Ham were complimentary to them afterwards.

“A number of West Ham players coming off were very complimentary to our team,” he said. “We won a few friends for our performance.

“We showed a lot of character coming from behind. It would be interesting to look at the number of times I’ve spoken after games about us fighting back.”

O’Neill was also full of compliments for Villa’s sell-out 3,200-strong following.

“The fans were terrific again,” he said.

“It nearly goes without saying but it’s something we should never take for granted.”