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Rallying Cry To Villa Players

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Martin O’Neill has made a rallying cry to the players saying: ‘The fans are demanding more and we should rise to the challenge.’

Adding: ‘I’ve said before that I can’t do anything about it. And I’m not overly worried. To tell you the truth, if you want to succeed here, you should be putting yourself under pressure. It should concern you. You should be living and breathing it. It should be important. Eventually players will get into a mind-set about winning, and turning a couple of those draws into wins. That’s not to say that we haven’t put the effort in. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

‘We could go out tonight (v Man City) and play better than maybe we have in the last couple of home games, and have a lucky goal against us and lose the game. Or we could play absolutely terrible and streak it! Which one would I rather take? That’s not the point. I just think that we should pressurise ourselves into winning the game. But at the minute, does that get to me? Not really because I want the expectation to be high here, and I want the people to be demanding and I want us to be able to live and react under that pressure. Because if you want to try to improve, that’s what you should be doing.’

Finishing: ‘If you had genuinely said to me that after 14 games, Arsenal with a game in hand can go only a point above us at the start of the season, I would take it! I am loath to say these things because in the next batch of games you might not win a game. We could get beaten tonight, then the next thing you know Portsmouth and Sheffield United could be really daunting prospects – they are anyway. But it would be nice to go and try and win the home game – for the people who are coming to watch.’

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