Aston Villa had to come from behind to clinch a critical 3-1 win at UEFA Cup rivals Litex Lovech last night.

Martin O'Neill's team were trailing 1-0 after Wilfred Niflore had put the hosts ahead in the 45th minute before moments later, Nigel Reo-Coker chased a lost cause to pounce on an error from goalkeeper Uros Golubovic to level.

Litex had Cedric Cambon sent off after he picked up a second-bookable offence while fellow defender Mihail Venkov was also dismissed after he was shown a straight red for handling on the line.

Gareth Barry dispatched the 72nd-minute penalty and local hero Stiliyan Petrov completed the 3-1 success in injury time.

"It was a very sluggish start," said O'Neill, referring to Ivelin Popov's 10th-minute free-kick.

"We did the one thing we really didn't want to do and gave away an early goal and it took a long time for us to get into our stride. Lovech played very well indeed, as we thought they would do.

"The key moment was probably before half-time when they had a chance to score, and a very good chance, and within a minute we had got an equaliser. That was also a priceless away goal.

"It was frustrating because we played really well against Tottenham and we had hoped with that momentum to have started more brightly.

"But the equalising goal gave us such an advantage. That basically changed the whole impetus of the game.

"If you said before the game we would win and score three goals we would have been very pleased.

"We didn't play as well as we did at Tottenham on Monday but we won and we have to learn in European football."