Villa fans should get real and trust O'Neill

SOCCER ANGLES: Surely the manager has shown with his work at other clubs he knows about building a club as well as a team and must be let get on with it

MARTIN O’NEILL walked wearily from the technical area in which he had been standing, with increasing frustration, and on to the pitch at Ewood Park. There he gave a brief wave to those Aston Villa fans who were still in the Darwen End of the old ground before turning back and heading down the tunnel. It was noticeable that, to these eyes, no-one waved back.

Villa had just been beaten in the 88th minute by a Blackburn Rovers side that had been reduced to 10 men 20 minutes earlier. Visiting fans can be peeved, understandably so, by such developments, but the lack of visible dialogue between them and their manager was intriguing.

This was Villa’s second league defeat of the season – the first since the opening day strangeness against Wigan – and Villa had won their previous four league games. When Gabriel Agbonlahor gave them an early lead at Blackburn, the claret in the Darwen End was flowing. There was even, as I recall, a chant for O’Neill to give them a wave.

Which he did.

But by the end, when O’Neill was waving again, there was indifference. That returns us to the Wigan game, after which there had been enough booing from home fans for everyone, including O’Neill, to mention it afterwards.

Suddenly – to outsiders – it seemed the atmosphere between the manager and Villa supporters contained a frisson previously unnoticed. Then Villa exited the Europa League to Rapid Vienna and you noticed it again. You began to hear dissent.

This felt odd. O’Neill is just past his third anniversary as David O’Leary’s successor. Things had not ended pleasantly at Villa Park for the Dubliner. The Derry man was greeted as a sincere replacement and Villa breathed a sigh of relief.

There was realism around the club then. Fans could see where it had been heading and so 11th place at the end of O’Neill’s first season was seen as heartening, stabilising. Season two then brought a leap: from 43 goals scored to 71, from 50 points and 11th to 60 points and sixth. Yes, Randy Lerner’s investment was being spent but then that is what a manager does when one is given a transfer fund.

O’Neill was bringing a fresh identity via the signing of youthful English players such as Ashley Young and James Milner, while Gareth Barry and Agbonlahor were responding to his management.

Last season there was a drop in goals scored but Villa were welcome top-four contenders and finished the season with two points more than the previous season. This again brought them sixth place. They are once again established in a top six that is getting stronger.

But that has also brought increased expectations, as it does. And with them O’Neill’s challenged changed. Not only was he driving Villa, he was being asked to appease those who felt he was not driving quickly enough.

That Manchester City were suddenly turbo-charged, and able to take away Barry, was not always part of the context of discussions, nor was the fact the top four have had another three seasons of Champions League money – to add to the previous 10 or so seasons’ worth. It requires more money for the likes of Villa, Everton and Tottenham simply to stand still.

It is too easy to criticise City alone for this, the Champions League has had a long-term effect in skewing finances and therefore what is achievable. But this message needs repeating.

Villa host Chelsea today, however, and should the visitors win – which a neutral would expect – then this message is likely to be trampled upon. There has been a spate of things for O’Neill to cope with – Vienna, Nigel Reo-Coker and Emile Heskey – and you can sense a sceptical feeling building. And even O’Neill believers can understand questions about the worth of Carlos Cuellar and Nicky Shorey.

Asking for patience at such moments is never popular but that is exactly what Villa fans, and others, must show. In O’Neill they possess a manger of proven substance, one who knows about building a club as well as a team, one who is aware of the fluctuations of football.

At Leicester City, where O’Neill moulded a cheaply-assembled team into top 10 regulars, European participants and Wembley winners, there were hard times at first. Most forget that but you can imagine this is the sort of thing O’Neill remembers.

After one particular game against Sheffield United, Leicester fans turned on O’Neill. He confronted a group of them, essentially said that things were tough but he would prevail. And he did.

A home win against Chelsea would head off matters at the pass but a defeat may see O’Neill hearing more boos and witnessing more indifferenc e.

He, his record and Villa’s situation deserve more understanding than that.

Stats do not tell the whole story

WHERE ALAN Wiley is concerned, the case for the defence rests heavily on his ProZone statistics and what they reveal about his fitness to be a referee.

It is recorded Wiley ran further than all but four of Manchester United's players in their 2-2- draw with Sunderland a fortnight ago, after which Alex Ferguson asked about Wiley's physical fitness, as opposed to any specific decisions.

There was widespread outrage at Ferguson's words and he even felt obliged to apologise. But is that the end of it? Does the production of ProZone statistics settle any argument? Of course it is interesting, instructive and sometimes surprising what the stats show about players and officials in any given game.

Undoubtedly we all can learn from this tool. But football existed before ProZone and some pretty good judges of players were able to get by without it.

It is also open to interpretation. On Wednesday night at Wembley, in an England-Belarus game reduced to a non- contest by the scoreline and the state of the group, David Beckham came on in the second half, clipped a few passes around and somehow convinced experienced observers that this was a fine contribution.

As ballast for this, the stats were produced showing how accurate those five-yard passes of Beckham's were. Big deal. What the stats didn't reveal was how close any Belarus midfielder got to Beckham at any given moment or if they cared by then.

One hopes that Fabio Capello is not in thrall to statistics and that he trusts judgment built up over decades in the game as a top-rank player and manager.

But if so, how come Beckham was being touted yesterday as a serious contender for England's squad for South Africa? Have the stat-men won?