Five-star Villa trounce Burnley

Feb 21, 2010 - 6:07 PM By MARK HENDRY STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - Martin O'Neill watched his side thump Burnley 5-2 and immediately called on his players to keep their foot on the pedal in the race for fourth spot in the Premier League.

An early Steven Fletcher strike put Burnley in front, but after Ashley Young equalised, a quick-fire double from Stewart Downing just before the hour mark and goals for strike partners Emile Heskey and Gabby Agbonlahor saw Villa cement their position as Champions League hopefuls.

O'Neill, whose side have a League Cup final date with Manchester United next weekend, said: "We started slowly and Burnley got in front and we had to fight back.

"But the goal we got before half-time got us back in the game and we looked more comfortable.

"That said, we started the second-half slowly as well but once we got in the lead it was a big boost to confidence.

"We need to be at our best all the time from here on in now. We can't take our foot off the pedal at all whereas other sides around could get away with that. We can't let off the accelerator at all from now on.

"We will look forward to a big week now with a bit of confidence."

Despite a fast start from the home side, it was Burnley who broke the deadlock, David Nugent slipping a fine cross over to fellow striker Fletcher, who lost his marker to tap in from close range in the tenth minute.

But just twenty minutes later, Burnley gave the afternoon's first indication of why they find themselves at the wrong end of the table, as hesitant defending from Danny Fox combined with uncertain goalkeeping from Brian Jensen to allow Ashley Young's cross to fly directly in.

The equaliser masked a myriad of Villa shortcomings however and the casual observer would have been hard-pressed to guess which side was chasing Champions League football and which fighting to avoid dropping into the Championship.

That was, until a bizarre twelve-minute period when Burnley simply fell to pieces.

Downing, a persistent threat to Burnley's defence all afternoon, gave Villa the lead on 56 minutes, tucking home with his right foot after a blistering Ashley Young run down the left.

Just two minutes later and Downing had his second, cutting in himself from the right and drilling a shot with his favoured left foot past Jensen in the Burnley goal, with no little help from a deflection from the hapless Fox's leg.

The rout continued just three minutes later when a shell-shocked Burnley defence watched Emile Heskey get his name on the score sheet with a scuffed effort from Agbonlahor's cross.

Burnley's misery was compounded by Agbonlahor barely 120 seconds later as he turned in James Milner's right-wing cross from close range.

Burnley's on-loan midfielder Jack Cork teed up Martin Paterson in injury-time to give the travelling Burnley fans something to cheer, but the result underlined how dire Burnley's prospects for survival appear.

Burnley boss Brian Laws, whose side have now taken just one point from 45 away from home in the Premier League and conceded a staggering 43 goals, said: "I think the scoreline is a bit misleading - we matched them for long periods of the game.

"It was a freak period and they took full advantage of some indecision on our part.

"They are a top side and they are where they are for good reason, but we need to look at ourselves today and where we should have been better.

"Psychologically the lads will bounce back from this. There are still games to be played and we know what we have to do to stay in this division.

"That might mean going back to basics a little bit but we will keep on fighting."