Cup hangover plausible for O’Neill
Monday 22nd February 2010, 9:30AM GMT.
Villa boss Martin O’Neill admitted the looming prospect of next week’s Carling Cup final was a possible explanation for their “sluggish” first-half performance against Burnley.
An off-colour claret and blues side found themselves level at 1-1 with the Lancashire side at the break, prompting an angry-half time tongue-lashing from the manager, but responded with four goals in 12 minutes in the second half and went on to win 5-2.
The club now face their biggest game in a decade when they face Manchester United at Wembley on Sunday and O’Neill conceded the game is likely to be at the back of players’ minds.
He said: “I wondered about that. I don’t think they’re the type, but I suppose like everything else it’s probably at the back of their minds.
“I just felt we were a wee bit sluggish to begin with. I had given the players a few days off. They’ve had a lot of games in quick succession and I hoped people would be galvanised by it.
“I thought maybe in the second half we started to get into a bit of a flow which was great. But I really don’t know whether the end of the week was on their minds or not.
“We got the equalising goal and there was kind of a relief around the ground, then Stewart Downing scores a great second goal for us to put us in front, and then we had that spell where we were just electric.”
O’Neill was delighted with Villa’s ruthless finishing after they had failed to find the net in five of their last seven league games.
He continued: “It was the movement and the ability to finish them off which has probably not been our strongest point in quite some time. It was really pleasing indeed, pleasing for the fans and probably a bit of relief for myself.
“Stewart Downing stuck the second in brilliantly and you can immediately see a lift of confidence. The second goal came because the confidence was up.
“When you’ve got these good players, and there’s a bunch of them there whose confidence, is very high I think that they’re an absolute treat to watch.”
UK Sport
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