We've got to make sure we give it our best

Last updated : 20 February 2010 By Tony Scholes
Villa boss Martin O'Neill admits to being wary of Burnley with us not having won away from home all season and believes all the pressure is on his team.

"I saw Burnley a week or so ago, the midweek game down at Craven Cottage, and they'll be disappointed because they would probably have been expecting a better show," O'Neill said.

"You don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad think because at the end of it they will be desperate to put it right. Obviously they will want to try and rectify that away record, which is not great. It puts an awful amount of pressure on their home fixtures to go and win.

"Ironically the point that they did take away from home was against Manchester City when they scored three."

He added: "I think we saw enough of them in the game up at Turf Moor to realise it will not be easy. They will come here, they will try and play a little bit, but they will also be desperate to get a result. In those desperate situations, you either find great consolation or you find it extremely difficult.

"It's as big a game for us as it is for Burnley. We have to try and win the game somehow, find a way to win it and that's what we're going to try and do. I think that regardless of anything, the expectation is on us anyway.

"Remember at the start of the season when Portsmouth couldn't win a game and they went to Wolves and Mick McCarthy said 'We think we can win this but I don't really want to be with the team that loses the first game' and lo and behold."

Brian Laws is hoping to improve on Burnley's away record of one point from thirteen games, and realises that the remaining away games are just as important as those at home. "We've got thirteen cup finals to come. Everybody is away of what's at stake," Laws said.

"We're going to treat every game like it's the very last game of the season and the result depends on our Premier League status. If we have that mentality going into every game we'll have a fighting chance.

"To hand pick certain games will be a dangerous game to play. We have to go all out to try to win every game. We know that specifically there will be games that will be called six pointers against the teams around us. But there are thirteen games to go and it's a case of giving everything possible in each game we play.

"If we come off there exhausted and fatigued because we've worked so hard and given everything we possibly can then there's a chance we'll get a result. Anything less then we've got a difficulty. We've got to have that mindset."

He's told his players to focus on the games coming up and not on past games. "What's happened is in the past," he said. "We move on to the next game and give it another real hard shot because this is a magnificent opportunity for the football club, for the players, the supporters, for everyone concerned to be in the Premier League yet again next season.

"We've got to make sure we give it our best."