Aston Villa captain John McGinn expects a battle at Nottingham Forest on Monday night.

McGinn knows the challenge won't be easy against opponents desperate for a positive result, in what is the first top-flight meeting between the clubs since 1999.

He said: “It will be another hostile environment, another tough place to go but it is somewhere we will be favourites to go and win.

“On Sunday (at Leeds) we kept cool heads and didn't get sucked in to anything the crowd or the opposition flung at us, so it is about staying cool, staying calm and hopefully taking our chances."

Villa are unbeaten in three matches and have kept clean sheets in the last two but are struggling in attack, netting just six times in eight league games so far.

McGinn added: “We have started defending better, started getting clean sheets and stopped the rot a bit, that side of the pitch.

“Our focus now is to create better chances, become slicker and score a lot more goals.

“We need to cross the ball a bit more, move it a bit quicker. It is something we are all guilty of. We have the ability there, the quality and we just need to start showing it in the final third."