Why Martin O’Neill is the right man for the job

A point away in a local derby and the vultures are gathering once more. Let’s be honest we didn’t play that well against Wolves however, a number of our attacking players performed below par. But how does this equate to a loss of faith in our manager?

We’ve seen his skills questioned on many levels over the last few years. He couldn’t build a decent defence, so sack him. We don’t have a big enough squad, so sack him. We cannot compete against the big teams, so sack him. He signs useless players like Reo-Coker, so sack him. He will not adjust his tactics, so sack him.

Now, this season he appears to have cleared most of those hurdles.

• Defence – sorted
• Squad Size – sorted
• Beat the bigger teams – sorted
• Reo-Coker is a joker – not any more it seems, many now think he is the answer to our prayers
• Systems adjusted – sorted

Of course, there is still some way to go. We do need a quality play maker in the middle, but these are hard to find and sign, even with big money (the best Man City could find was Barry). We could do with a 30 goal a season striker and many suggested Owen, but look now, I'm not sure he’s going to get there, are you?

At this moment in time, you have us, Spurs and City knocking on the door of the top four. City do have a great big sledgehammer, which should help, but I’m not so sure we are the weaker of those three, despite what the bookmakers say. All three are finding things difficult and a good result is followed by a disappointing one, but it is the reaction of the fans that appears to be different.

This is also true of the top four teams. Fans of other teams seem to shrug off a bad result, they highlight poor individual performances, they blame opposition teams for lack of ambition and sometimes blind/biased refereeing.

But what do we hear from a lot of Villa fans? It’s Martin O’Neill. Full stop.

I think that it is time we started acting like a big club. Let’s start blaming the officials, let’s berate the lesser sides for their lack of ambition. Let’s start pointing out that the only reason we failed to get all four points was because Ash had a bad day or Gabby forgot his shooting boots.

Let’s stop claiming our players aren’t good enough. Let’s stop suggesting our manager is a joke and let’s start looking upwards, because I’m fairly confident that that is where we are going.