McLeish hails Villa mettle

Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish praised his defenders after they held out fast-finishing Norwich to secure their first win in over a month.

Two goals from Darren Bent and another from Gabriel Agbonlahor helped Villa post a 3-2 win at home, which was all the more impressive considering they went behind to a stunning Anthony Pilkington free-kick after 25 minutes.

McLeish had kind words for his defence, which had been under fire for conceding late-on at Sunderland a week earlier.

“There was some terrific forward play and it was one hell of a game and that’s all you can ask from your team,” McLeish said.

“It was a very open game in the first 15 minutes, probably too open for my liking. It showed great character and resilience to bounce back from the set-back (of conceding) because we did so strongly and finished the half on top.”

“It’s never won, the players never gave up and that’s why they should take great credit for not losing the sucker goal in the last few minutes because we’ve done that in some other games and we’ve been blasted for it so we deserve a bit of credit today.”

“Don’t forget Norwich went to Anfield and got a brilliant draw so that’s a great result for us.”

“But we should have put it out of sight if you’re honest. If you look at the chances we had at the end we were a wee bit wasteful.”

Norwich manager Paul Lambert was pleased with his side’s fighting spirit although he admitted he was disappointed with the final result.

“I think the good thing about it is we don’t stop, we keep going. I think that’s in abundance, but we can’t give goals like that away, especially when you’ve got a foothold in the game at 1-1,” Lambert said.

“You lose a silly goal just after half-time which puts you on the back-foot and then you’re down 3-1, but to be fair to the lads they kept on going.”

“We don’t know any other way, we come to try and win games and the first goal I thought was a world-class goal. It gives you that foothold in the game.”

“But you also know that Aston Villa are a really good side.”