Villa's wing wonder hails the Gordon Cowans effect

The winger has heaped praise on Gordon Cowans after the Villa legend stepped up to help Paul Lambert during the club's crisis.

Cowans and Shay Given replaced the suspended assistant manager Ian Culverhouse and head of football operations Gary Karsa during a turbulent last week.

The banned duo are the subject of an internal investigation after claims of alleged bullying as Villa fight for their Premier League survival.

Just five points above the bottom three ahead of tomorrow's trip to Swansea, Villa have called on Cowans for aid.

Albrighton was a striker in the academy under Cowans before the former midfielder turned him into a winger.

And the 24-year-old is eager to work closely with the coach again after the effect he has had on his career.

"There came a point where I hadn't had a growth spurt. I was coming up against defenders who were 6ft-plus and I was really tiny. I was barely 5ft.

"That just wasn't working and I was getting pushed all over the place.

"Sid switched me and it really worked. He transformed my career, really.

"He just told me that he saw me more as a winger. He asked me, actually: 'Do you want to try it out there?'

"I wasn't going to say no to him! This is Gordon Cowans. He knows best.

"I'd never played as a winger before that.

I remember the next game went really well. So we took it on from that. We worked on the position in training – and the rest is history really."

And Albrighton is delighted to work with a coach whose history is etched into the corridors at Villa Park.

Cowans made 527 appearances for the claret and blues – winning the European Cup in 1982 – and was previously first team coach under Alex McLeish.

Albrighton said: "Sid is just a total legend. I have worked with him at every level up to first team.

"You can't not get on with him. He's a top, top bloke. He's a good coach too.

"He's been there and done it as a player. He's great to have around.

"Sid was a bit before my time in terms of seeing him play. I had never really seen him play.

"But when I got home on my first day in the academy and told my dad that Gordon Cowans was my coach, he couldn't believe it. He jumped right out of his seat.

"He admired him so much. There he was telling me what a great player Sid was and there I was telling him what a great guy Sid was.

"His style of coaching is definitely one of encouragement. He doesn't treat you like a robot and say 'do this and do that.' He will just give you advice like 'play to your strengths and express yourselves' while still giving you the vital things you need technically.

"He will praise you when you're doing well. Obviously you need telling when you do something wrong, but on the other side of the coin it's great to get a pat on the back when you do something well. You need that balance."

Veteran keeper Given joins Cowans after coming in from the cold following his first-team exile.

The keeper was on loan at Middlesbrough earlier this season and had not played for Villa since January 2013