Martin Laursen has revealed Aston Villa's players held clear-the-air talks after this week's disappointing draw with Middlesbrough.

Martin O'Neill's team are now seven points behind fifth-placed Everton with nine games to play.

And the players were so annoyed at the way they performed, they thrashed it out afterwards.

Danish defender Laursen admitted: "We all had a chat after the game.

"We were not happy with the general performance - especially in the first half when it looked like they wanted it more than us.

"They were more aggressive, they were more on the ball, they worked harder and that is always difficult to accept.

"You can accept a defeat if you concede the opposition are better than you on the day.

"But to not have the right attitude - that is a blow. We have played some good games and it is easy to say we were too confident about ourselves and didn't take it seriously.

"I won't say that but it is easy to look at it that way. We need to come into every game with the highest respect and highest concentration and focus on the game."