Witness our fitness warns Young

Villa winger Ashley Young has kicked off the Wembley countdown by warning Chelsea - 'We'll match you for fitness from the first minute to the last.'

Blues skipper John Terry infuriated manager Martin O'Neill in claiming after his side's 7-1 win demolition of Villa that the claret and blues run out of steam in the latter stages of games.

Saturday's FA Cup semi-final between the sides gives them a swift opportunity to ram Terry's words down his throat and Young warns Villa are determined to put things right.

He said: "There has been a lot said about stats and fitness, but we concentrate on our own game.

"If you look at this season we have gone from the first minute to the last. Even in the Wolves game we scored very late on, so it shows we can go all the way to the end.

"It is just important we score and get the win, that is what matters. We have always performed from the first minute to the last and that has always been instilled into us by the staff and manager. The work rate from the players is brilliant.

"Saturday is just another game, but it is a cup game and it will be totally different from the league game. Anything can happen and we will be looking forward to going down there.

"We had a disappointing defeat and, as a team, everyone felt it. But we have got a great team spirit and everyone pulls in the right direction."

Young scored Saturday's winner against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium and admits the victory was crucial to restore confidence going into this weekend's crunch clash.

He said: "It was just important to win. We had had a couple of draws against Wolves and Sunderland, along with the Chelsea defeat.

"It was not nice to have that and we wanted to bounce back. We bounced back in the best possible way. Even in the late scuffle at the end the team was there as a whole and that is what has been instilled into us. We fight for each other.

"You don't want to see that sort of thing on the pitch, but at least it shows what a great team spirit we have got."