Football
PA Sport 9y

Paul Lambert praises players for hard-fought draw against Southampton

Paul Lambert, celebrating his 100th game in charge of Aston Villa, paid tribute to his players for fighting to get a 1-1 draw from in-form Southampton on Monday night.

Since joining the club from Norwich in 2012, he has won just 30 of his 100 games so far, losing 48 and drawing 22. But the Scot praised his side, who are without a win in their last eight matches, collecting just two points in the process.

He said: "I thought we played well. We had six players out -- three centre-backs and [Christian] Benteke's out, [Nathan] Baker and [Fabian] Delph's out -- big players for this club and it's a lot to carry.

"The two centre-backs, the young ones were outstanding. Jores [Okore] has been out for 14 months and I thought he was fantastic. I thought Ciaran [Clark], grew up tonight and took the lead role and he was outstanding. I though Gabby was a threat the whole night.''

Lambert believes Southampton deserve credit for their equaliser after wasting a number of earlier chances to score.

He added: "You're expected to get the opening goal, especially at home -- there's a massive expectancy level on everybody so to get the goal with Gabby's pace -- it was a well-taken goal.

"You have to give Southampton credit, the the way they played the deserved a lot of credit.''

Villa have battled relegation for the past four seasons, two under Lambert, and they were winless in seven games in the Premier League ahead of Monday night's draw.

But, when asked of any added pressure, he said: "I've dealt with pressure all my life really through being a football and being in management -- it's part and parcel of the game. It's a great job, you have problems and the secret is to find the solution. That's the secret.

"It's a key period from now until May. Every weekend we play is a challenge, but it's a challenge we have to rise to.''

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