Heskey hails Darren Bent’s impact
Wednesday 20th April 2011, 3:00PM BST.
Emile Heskey has hailed the impact of Darren Bent and believes his fellow striker will be top of the goalscoring charts at Villa for years to come.
Heskey started a match alongside Bent for the first time against West Ham since the £24m striker swapped the Stadium of Light for Villa Park during the January transfer window.
The partnership yielded a 2-1 victory at Upton Park, with Bent getting on the scoresheet after Heskey had won the ball back to allow Luke Young to cross for the England international to head home.
While Bent’s arrival has seen Heskey fighting to retain his place in the side, the experienced forward is only too aware of his team-mate’s qualities in front of goal.
Heskey said: “He’s been absolutely brilliant since he’s joined us. Obviously Darren is going to get his goals.
“I definitely feel he can be a 20-goal a season man for us. He’s showed that finishing class over the years for every club he’s played for.
“He has been playing in the top-flight for many years and he always shows his class and quality in front of goal.
“They say he had a bad time at Spurs but he was still scoring goals for them and hit 17 there in the one season.
“That’s a great rate of goals. Hopefully he can take that sort of form and the form he’s shown at Villa into next season. There’s no reason why he can’t.
“He’ll be a big player for us next season.”
Heskey also admitted that Villa’s win over West Ham was a significant result in the context of the remainder of the Premier League season.
The 33-year-old said: “We are buzzing. It was a massive, massive win for us.
“Obviously we went down to Upton Park knowing that they were in the dogfight as well so they were going to be at it – we knew they’d be up for it.
“We went at it with great determination and got the three points. It was massive. It was a huge three points.
“There was no hiding from it – we were in there but we’re slowly pulling away now.
“If we keep up that form from now until the end of the season, we can finish well.”
UK Sport
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