O'Neill - Respect can work

Villa boss backs FA campaign and calls for 'grit'

Last updated: 14th November 2008

O'Neill - Respect can work

O'Neill: Calling for determination

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Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is confident the Football Association's Respect campaign can prove a success.

The initiative was launched by the FA at the beginning of the season with an aim to combat unacceptable behaviour on the pitch and from the sidelines.

However, recent outbursts from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, Newcastle boss Joe Kinnear and Chelsea striker Didier Drogba have led some to question the impact.

O'Neill, though, believes Respect is having an affect on football in England.

"It was all done for the right reasons which, in the main, we are trying to do," O'Neill told Sky Sports News.

Determination

"It doesn't mean, in the heat of the moment, you might not get yourself involved in some more unsavoury stuff.

"But we have tried it. There have been a few incidents, including myself. But I hope at the end of it all we take it in the context it is intended.

"Sometimes you see the replay and see the referee was right and you have to wipe the embarrassment from your face."

Meanwhile, O'Neill is eager for his players to demonstrate some 'real grit' as they attempt to end a 19-game run without a win against Arsenal this weekend.

"It is a big game because we have lost the last two and we want to bounce back,'' he told the Birmingham Mail.

"We want to show real grit and determination and in the last two league games that we have played, on the balance if we hadn't been beaten then I think that would have been fine."