Villa’s Stephen Warnock calls for ‘mental strength’
Tuesday 30th November 2010, 11:27AM GMT.
Stephen Warnock today called for Villa to pull together and be “mentally strong” as they prepare for tomorrow’s crunch Carling Cup showdown with derby rivals Birmingham.
Villa have won just one game in November and have suffered back-to-back defeats in their last two Premier League outings against Blackburn and Arsenal.
They now face a testing run of fixtures in the build up to a decisive Christmas period beginning with tough trip to St Andrew’s.
And Warnock admitted the players have to show the kind of character they demonstrated in a spirited second-half fightback against the Gunners if they are to progress to the semi-finals of the competition.
“There were harsh words from the lads at half-time against Arsenal,” said Warnock. “The manager didn’t have to say anything.
“The lads rallied around and as soon as we came in at we knew it wasn’t good enough.
“It is a tough time because we have lost a couple on the spin but we have to be strong mentally now.
“We’ve got to knuckle down now and work as hard as possible.”
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
