Richard Dunne is confident Villa’s defence can halt Manchester United’s goal rush this weekend after keeping their first Premier League clean sheet in three months.

Martin O’Neill’s team cruised to a 3-0 victory over struggling Hull last Saturday, but now an altogether different proposition lies in wait with the Villans heading to Old Trafford to face the champions.

The Red Devils have scored 10 goals in their last three games in the league but, buoyed by their first clean sheet in the league since beating Portsmouth in September, Dunne reckons Villa’s defence is good enough to frustrate Wayne Rooney and Co.

He said: “Clean sheets were something we had been talking about in the build-up. We had kept conceding since September so it was nice to get back to conceding zero again.

“We need to start keeping clean sheets again. We’ve obviously got a lot of hard games coming up in December so the more clean sheets we can keep the better. We know we can score goals.”

Ironically, their most recent win over Pompey, last week’s 4-2 Carling Cup quarter-final success, marked another landmark.

A penalty shoot-out victory at Sunderland aside, it was their first away win since beating Birmingham in mid-September.

Dunne reckons the Fratton Park triumph will boost confidence for Saturday’s trip up the M6.

He said: “Hopefully it can kickstart our away form. It is different opposition going to Old Trafford but the confidence has always been there. It is just the results haven’t come off for us.

“We’ve not lost the confidence when we’ve gone away. For whatever reason, we just haven’t got the results. Hopefully last Tuesday will kickstart the results.”

The Republic of Ireland international also insists there is no chance of next month’s Carling Cup semi-final with Blackburn being a distraction over the vital Christmas period.

He added: “I don’t expect it to be hard to put to one side. We’re doing well and we’ve got the opportunity to challenge the top four.”