Smith: Villa victory is vital

It's vital to our season that normal service is resumed at Villa Park tomorrow, writes Tommy Smith in the Liverpool Echo.

Defeat last season - in what was a pretty meaningless last game of the season - was the first we'd suffered there for well over a decade. But as we head into Christmas , it's crucial we exact revenge and take all three points.

With victory against QPR last weekend and Spurs losing at Stoke, we clawed back some ground on Harry Redknapp's team.

Consecutive away games now against Villa and Wigan in midweek won't be easy. But neither, on paper, are they the most difficult looking trips and if we're going to get back into the top four, these are two places where we must look to make up more ground.

There's a sense of mild irritation around the Reds at the moment and I can well understand why. Our play this season has deserved much more reward than it has got - but in saying that we've only really had ourselves - and some really bad luck at times - to blame.

Our away form has been in such stark contrast to our home form and we need to keep it going in the next week to compensate for those five league draws at Anfield.

Plenty of eyes will be on Stewart Downing and I hope he can deliver under that pressure. There'd be no better time or place for the lad to finally get off the mark than at his old club.

Wide men are always key for me - that's where you can find and exploit space when a game is tight. And Downing has the skill and the pace to drill holes into his old club's defence.

Villa are without Shay Given too so let's hope we won't see another 'keeper having a blinder to deny us. If we keep making the chances we have been, we just have to start taking them.

The target just has to be six points from both of these games. If we can pull that off, then with Blackburn and Newcastle to come at home, our season might just be able to settle down and start to take on a really positive shape

Source: Liverpool Echo

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