Aston Villa striker Andi Weimann says the club's young players are feeding off their own enthusiasm.

Paul Lambert fielded a total of six Villa academy graduates last Saturday at Liverpool. The Villa boss has been criticised for trying to play too many youngsters.

He said: "A lot of us are the same age, so we get on well.

"But on the field, when someone says something against you, you want to prove them wrong. Maybe that's a factor that helped us.

"But I thought we always knew - even after losing at home to Manchester United - that we'd been performing well. It was just that the results didn't go our way.

"We were always confident. We've shown in the last few weeks we can play football.

"The way we played against Norwich in the cup was brilliant. For the strikers, goals bring confidence and at Liverpool we showed that.

"A good thing about a young team is that they don't care who they play against.

"And if we can get to Wembley, then it would be unreal."