O'Leary unmoved by dissenters
Aston Villa manager David O’Leary shrugged off banners draped on the Holt End calling for him to quit and praised the vast majority of supporters who witnessed a tepid goalless draw with Fulham.
Villa fans had called for O’Leary to resign after last Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Everton – their third in eight days.
But the majority of the 32,000 crowd continued to back the Villa chief and his players during the encounter with Chris Coleman’s side.
O’Leary said: “I have been told about the banners. That comes with football now. It can happen to any of us at any time.
“There were 32,000 people in the ground and the vast majority of those people like myself want to take Aston Villa forward.
“We can’t complain about the fans today. If there are one or two banners out of 32,000 people, then I am big enough to take that on the chin.
“The important thing is that the fans stayed with our young players and in terms of effort I couldn’t complain. It is a difficult time and we have all got to stay together to get through it.”
O’Leary admitted “It was a nervy and scrappy game but I was happy that we improved defensibly on the performance at Everton.
“I thought Liam Ridgewell played very well at the back. He was very strong indeed for us.
“In the last third of the field we only really had half chances and the game petered out.”
Support for O’Leary came from Fulham manager Chris Coleman, who had also been the subject of speculation about his future only a fortnight ago.
“David has a lot of experience and he has seen it all before. It was my turn a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
“Steve McClaren, Steve Bruce have had the same sort of thing. That is football and you have to be strong enough to come through it.
“David O’Leary will be able to get through this. Villa have had a tough time with a couple of dodgy performances and results but David is experienced enough to put all this behind him.”
Coleman praised his side for picking up their first away point for nearly five months as they followed a win over Chelsea with a second successive clean sheet.
He said: “There was a lot of hype surrounding our win last week and it was important we didn’t fall flat. If we did that then the bubble was going to burst.
“But we showed the commitment and desire required. It was not always pretty and we have played better but we competed as a team and that’s all we asked for.
“We have looked more solid and big Ian Pearce deserved a lot of credit for that.
“He has been terrific along with Zat Knight and we now look as if we have got a platform to build on.
“You can’t build a good house without foundations being in place and that comes from your defence.
“We have now got two clean sheets in a row.”
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