O'Neill hails comeback

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill praised his side’s second half comeback as Gabriel Agbonlahor’s late strike earned a precious point in the 1-1 draw against Everton.

The visitors had looked set to climb into sixth place in the table after Joleon Lescott had headed them in front after 15 minutes with his first goal of the campaign.

However, Villa were transformed after the interval and Agbonlahor, who is set to sign a new three-year contract later this week, salvaged a share of the spoils seven minutes from time.

Everton remain in seventh place but Villa have now moved five points clear of the bottom three.

O’Neill said: “We were poor in the first half. There is a bit of confidence lacking and it was a continuation of our performance against Liverpool.

“But the players galvanised themselves in the second half. They forced the pace immediately after half-time, spurned a couple of chances but we deserved something for our second half onslaught.

“It is an important point. About an hour before kick-off we were really thinking we could win this game, go 11th in the table and look forward to the two games over Easter.

“Suddenly we can see the goal, are not playing well and find ourselves on the back foot. But after we got the goal, I thought we could have won it.”

Patrik Berger inspired Villa after being brought on at half-time for Gavin McCann.

O’Neill said: “We needed to change things but I was also mindful of the fact Gavin had been booked and I didn’t want us going down to 10 men.

“Patrik has made significant contributions in shorter periods. I decided to bring him on earlier and who is to say it didn’t work for us.”

Everton boss David Moyes felt his side should have been given a penalty for a challenge by Stiliyan Petrov on Andrew Johnson shortly after Lescott had broken the deadlock.

He said: “It was a tackle from behind. It was the sort of tackle a centre-forward makes on the halfway line. If we had got that penalty it would have been 2-0.

“I was really pleased with our first half performance but you knew Villa would come back at us.

“It was tougher in the second half. I thought we had weathered the storm and we were a little bit unfortunate not to hang on for the win.”

Regarding Lescott’s goal, Moyes said: “I’ve told him that scoring the odd goal is something he needs to add to his game and I was pleased for him.

“He has been playing out of position at left-back but has been doing it stoutly and has been a very good player for us this season.”

Moyes revealed a belief in the Everton squad that they can go and clinch a European spot.

He said: “There is a feeling around the team that we can do this. We’re not getting carried away and have to keep performing as well as we have done to achieve it.”