O'Neill desperate for Villa midfielders to start scoring

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill believes the likes of Steve Sidwell, Stiliyan Petrov and Nigel Reo-Coker have to contribute more to scoring if Villa are to challenge for honours.

Only Gareth Barry scored regularly from the centre of the park since O'Neill took charge of Villa three-and-a-half years ago - but most of those came from penalties.

O'Neill said: "I think if you are going to be successful, you have to have a goal-scoring midfield.

"You would have to be exceptionally lucky to go through a season and not have someone scoring from midfield, and yet still be really successful. We should be sharing goals around more.

"We should be getting more from midfield. That is something we haven't really had here. In my time here Gareth Barry scored although a lot of his were penalty kicks.

"If you are playing with three in the middle of the pitch, and we have done it sometimes, with a lone centre-forward then I think the onus is on the midfield to get into the box, past the centre forward and score.

"I keep telling midfielders they are worth their weight in gold if they can get into double figures. That is why players like Frank Lampard are so brilliant.

"He is one who will get you 20 goals a season, every season."