Martin O'Neill looks to the future of Aston Villa
Oct 1 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Post
The Villa boss said: “The players that are keeping our young lads out of the side are fully-fledged internationals.
“Lads like Marc have a real, proper chance of being a player. We’ve also got the likes of Nathan Delfouneso, Shane Lowry and Ciaran Clark.
“We’ve sent Shane out on loan, Ciaran came into the side for the game with Fulham and played as if he had turned out 50 times in the Premier League. It is all very encouraging.
“I am hoping these players will get chances.”
O’Neill has already intimated he wants to use a rotation policy this season to try and blood as many of his young stars as possible but knows it is not necessarily a good idea to keep changing his side when to comes to league matches.
“The Premier League, as I am often reminded, is not the place to be experimenting all the time,” he said.
“When I look back, I wish we had the European games because I would definitely have looked to blood them in that – metaphorically rather than physically of course.
“But I am sure their chance will come and I am sure they will grasp it.”
Meanwhile O’Neill has backed his side to come back fighting after the disappointment of the weekend’s 2-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
He insisted the late penalty decision at Ewood Park, given for a Richard Dunne hand-ball had been “galling” because it had put a halt to an incredible Villa run of six wins in six matches and a record which, had it reached seven, would have been the club’s best start to a season in 79 years.
O’Neill said: “Blackburn came into the game with a certain approach and you have to do your very best to cope with that and obviously try and defeat it.
“For the most part at the weekend I thought we coped well. It was a particularly dubious penalty which won the game with two minutes to go.
“That’s the most galling thing. For us to have remained unbeaten in our little run would have kept momentum going.
“We have been knocked a little but we will fight back for the visit of Manchester City on Monday night.”
