Villa boss O´Neill targets magnificent seven on road

Martin O’Neill will be aiming to record a club record seventh successive away victory on Saturday when he takes his Aston Villa squad to Blackburn.

The Aston Villa manager has constantly bemoaned the fact that he possesses one of the smallest squads in the Premier League, but he wants an “unbelievable effort” from them for the next four months, as they continue to chase silverware on three separate fronts.

O?Neill deliberately rested key players Gareth Barry, James Milner and Gabby Agbonlahor for their FA Cup replay against Doncaster Rovers on Wednesday and all are expected to return, along with 3.5-million-pound signing Emile Heskey, who was cup-tied, for the trip to Lancashire.

The 3-1 victory over Doncaster means Villa are now in the last 16 of the FA Cup. They will resume their UEFA Cup quest against CSKA Moscow later this month and have the chance to move equal with Liverpool in second place in the Premier League if they make it into the record books this weekend.

Although O’Neill is willing to rotate his squad to some extent, he has still used only 19 players this season and intends to keep fighting on all three fronts.

“I have been asked before about prioritising and I am beginning to hate that word,” he said.

“I love the FA Cup and I?m delighted we?re in the fifth round. We will go as strongly as we can but if the Premier League is the Holy Grail, I suppose we have got to be chasing that, but we want to do well in the UEFA Cup too.”

Villa are undefeated since December and O?Neill added: “We will see how we go. It doesn?t mean that if we couldn?t get close to one competition that we couldn’t make an unbelievable effort, but we are going to need everyone. We can’t afford to carry anyone.

“We don’t have the numbers to carry people. Everyone has to step up. We need everybody. We have a bit of momentum going. We have to try to keep it going.”

Norwegian striker John Carew scored his first goal for almost three months against Doncaster, as he continues to return from back and hamstring problems, but he is likely to be the one to make way for the return of Heskey.

American goalkeeper Brad Friedel will also be back to face his former club after being replaced by Brad Guzan on Wednesday.

Blackburn also enjoyed a morale-boosting FA Cup success in a replay against Sunderland, thanks to South African international Benni McCarthy?s extra-time winner and the club are now unbeaten in ten games since Sam Allardyce replaced Paul Ince.

Despite that record, Rovers are still in the bottom three, but El Hadj Diouf, the recent two-million-pound arrival from Sunderland remains confident that the club has the necessary qualities to get out of trouble.

The Senegalese star, who left Sunderland under a cloud and was branded a troublemaker, is hoping to make his full debut, after being forced to sit out the victory over his former club, saying: “The squad is very strong. When I look around the club I see a lot of good players and I feel we can get out of the problems we are in.

“What we have to do is make sure that we all pull in the same direction. I will work hard for the team and if we all do that then we should not have any problems.”