Stan Collymore has hit out at the stick given to Villa striker Emile Heskey and hopes his return to scoring form will silence his critics.

Heskey has endured a testing first 12 months at Villa after his £3.5m switch from Wigan.

But the England striker netted his first goal of the season in the recent draw at Burnley and also scored in Tuesday’s 4-2 win at Portsmouth in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.

Former Villa and England striker Collymore said: “I know Emile very well from our days at Leicester.

“I’m certainly one of the band of strikers who have nothing but praise for him.

“I was delighted to see him score at Burnley and then follow it up with another at Portsmouth.

“Hopefully those will silence his critics. He has had a lot of stick in recent weeks and in my opinion it’s totally unjustified

“While people cast doubts over his scoring record, I can’t speak highly enough of him, and I’m sure you would get the same response from people like Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.

“They have benefited enormously from playing alongside him with England.

“In terms of his overall contribution to a team, Emile is vastly underrated and he’s very much a players’ player.”