O’Neill adds to admirers

MARTIN O’NEILL is insistent that he has no interest in walking out on Aston Villa, but more results like this and it will not just be England wanting to speak to the Irishman.

O’Neill sent out a side bristling with pace, power and purpose to overwhelm Middlesbrough, who now have very real relegation worries, having only been kept out of the bottom three by Sunderland’s freak defeat at Everton.

And yet it is a mark of O’Neill’s ambition that he professed himself unimpressed with aspects of Villa’s play, after a result earned by goals from John Carew, Olof Mellberg and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

O’Neill said: “It seems as though we were comfortable but that is not the case. After the second goal we were half-decent but we need to improve again.”

What Gareth Southgate would give for half-decency. His side’s dreadful strike rate has seen them score just three times in seven matches.

Southgate said: “We have to do better. Somehow we have managed to stay out of the bottom three so we are very, very lucky. I’m the manager and I’m a fighter. But they’ve got to fight and scrap because it’s a collective that gets us out of it.”

Villa led when Carew swivelled past Wheater to fire home in the third minute of first-half injury time.

Two minutes after the break Lee Cattermole’s attempted clearance fell to Mellberg in the box who finished well past Schwarzer. And in the 58th minute Agbonlahor wrestled free of Woodgate to shoot Villa’s third.

MIDDLESBROUGH (4-4-2): Schwarzer 5, Young 4, Woodgate 4, Wheater 5, Pogatetz 6, O’Neil 7, Cattermole 5 (Rochemback 54, 4), Boateng 5, Johnson 5, Aliadiere 3 (Hutchinson 75, 5), Downing 5

Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Sanli, Taylor.

ASTON VILLA (4-4-2): Carson 6, Mellberg 8, Knight 7, Laursen 7 (Davies 84, 5), Bouma 7, Petrov 5 (Gardner 79, 5), Reo-Coker 7, Barry 7, Young 8, Carew 8 (Maloney 75, 5), Agbonlahor 8.

Subs Not Used: Taylor, Moore.

REFEREE: Keith Stroud (Hampshire) 7: Oversaw a generally uneventful game with the minimum of fuss.

MATCH RATING: ** Villa have every reason for optimism as winter approaches but Gareth Southgate faces an anxious future.