Villa manager delighted with his side's recent run of form
Tuesday 9 December 2014 12:02, UK
Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert hailed Alan Hutton as "absolutely fantastic" after his winning goal against Leicester City.
The hosts fell behind at Villa Park to a Leonardo Ulloa strike but quickly levelled through Ciaran Clark.
Hutton then won it for Villa in the second half when he kept his composure to score his first goal for the club and his first for four years.
“Hutton has been absolutely fantastic since he has been in the side,” Lambert told Sky Sports. “He is a guy who is on top of his game at the minute and I am delighted for him. He is a good player, I don’t think anybody should be under any illusions of that.”
Hutton’s goal secured just a second home win of the season for Villa and stretched their unbeaten run to five matches.
The victory also lifts them up to 11th in the Premier League and Lambert says there were "major plusses" from the match.
“We are in a good bit of form,” he said. “First half we were fantastic, some of the play and retention of the ball was excellent and the game plan was great. We went behind to a poor goal that took a deflection but after that I thought were excellent.
“We looked a threat throughout the whole game. I know the lads can do things, I know we have goalscorers in the side, we have Gabby’s (Agbonlahor) speed, Charlie’s (N’Zogbia) creativity, and Christian (Benteke). I thought we should have had a few more, I thought Christian should have scored a couple, Jack (Grealish) also should have scored rather than pass.
“Everybody thinks Villa are struggling, but we are doing our best to get up there. The team are worthy of competing and if we can keep adding players to it let’s see where we go. There is a big expectancy level at the club, you have to rise to that, but the crowd have been great.”
Asked about the red card given to Leicester's Paul Konchesky that appeared to be given for a clash of heads with Hutton, Lambert said: "I saw the head go in, if you do that, as we found out with Christian against Spurs, you open yourself up to a red card. If Christian's was a red that was probably one too."
