‘We believe in him and will keep fighting’ – Aston Villa’s Stilian Petrov backs under-fire boss Alex McLeish

In the wake of defeat at Newcastle and Charles N’Zogbia’s twitter outburst, the club captain has vowed to turn things around and believes the Scot is the right man for the job

7 Feb 2012 13:45:00

By Joe Wright

More On :  Aston Villa, Stilian Petrov, Alex McLeish
Stiliyan Petrov, Aston Villa (Getty Images)

Aston Villa captain Stilian Petrov has backed under-fire boss Alex McLeish, insisting that the team are behind him and will fight to improve their form.

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Villa have been inconsistent throughout the campaign, with Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Newcastle leaving them languishing in 13th place in the Premier League, and rumours of unrest amongst the players have followed.

Charles N’Zogbia took to Twitter to vent his frustration, while there were reports of crossed words between McLeish and Stephen Ireland after the latter was substituted during the game at Sports Direct Arena.

Petrov has now moved to diffuse the situation, declaring that the team are fully behind the boss and will strive to improve on their recent run of results.

"Our manager will get it right," the 32-year-old told the Guardian. "We believe in him and we will keep fighting.

“We've been creating chances but we just can't keep a clean sheet. We've been working really hard but it has not been paying off.

"He's [McLeish] a strong character, though. He'll never give up. He'll keep fighting and driving us forward. We are behind him. It's just that we can't get results at the moment.”

Villa have managed just two wins in their last six League games, and take on leaders Manchester City this coming weekend.

Despite the daunting prospect of entertaining the League’s top scorers, Petrov believes his side has the quality to turn around their fortunes sooner rather than later.

"The margins between winning and losing are very small in the Premier League," he added. "If you are not careful things can turn against you so I hope we can start getting some points and climbing the table.

“That's important for us now but we know we have enough quality to pull out of this. We know we will score goals and there will come a time when we will defend better. We will get it right."

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