Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill believes Moustapha Salifou will be pushing for a first team debut after the international break.

O'Neill told the Villa website: "I thought he did very well for the reserves last week. He did very well indeed. He was very comfortable with it.

"His fitness is getting better, and his attitude has been very good. And in the practice game we had against Birmingham City in the second-half... he is doing really well now and is getting to grips with it.

"Fitness wise you can see the difference. He looks comfortable. He may, interestingly, be a wee bit closer than I had anticipated.

"I thought he did really well against Spurs reserves. At Walsall, the pitch can be a bit bobbly, it was scagging along, but I thought his control was really good. I thought he did really fine.

"You could say he offers us something different, but not just that. The couple of times he broke forward at the edge of the box he shaped up as if he was going to hit it with his left foot, then checked back again.

"He was impressive. The fans applauded him when he went off injured, and he got applauded on again. He did well."