Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry has hailed the leadership qualities of teammate Nigel Reo-Coker.

Barry told Villa's website: "I was gutted to miss the Liverpool game and I was obviously delighted to be back against Blackburn.

"Nigel came in as skipper at Anfield in my absence and did a superb job. I thought he was tremendous and that's no surprise because he was skipper at West Ham and for England under-21s too.

"It's important to have leaders all over the pitch and we've certainly got that here."