Aston Villa 2 - Portsmouth 1

Goals from Juan Pablo Angel and Darius Vassell earned Villa a 2-1 home success over Portsmouth as they took their points tally to 13 from the last five games.

It marks a dramatic turn around in Villa's fortunes as only three weeks ago they were occupying a bottom-three position in the table.

But now they are brimming with confidence with Angel now having netted 14 times this season while Vassell has been on target three times in the last two home league games.

O'Leary said: "We got a lucky goal to win from Vassell but I thought the best team won the game.

"The players looked tired at half time after playing against Manchester United on Sunday but they dug in and got the result.

"We pressurised them at the end and the good thing is we are now on a run.

"May be the players will get a bit of belief that if you do dig in, then you might get a fluky goal like the one we've had today.

"I'm delighted to be in sixth place but there is a long way to go. I am bound to say that, aren't I?

"But we have seen how quickly fortunes can change with two or three wins shooting you up the table and two or three defeats knocking you straight back down."

Pompey did at least have the consolation of scoring their first away goal in 743 minutes but manager Harry Redknapp felt his side deserved some tangible reward from the game.

He said: "We didn't deserve to lose. But that winning goal shows what happens when you are getting no luck. I couldn't ask any more from the boys in terms of effort.

"We've played Villa twice. We beat them 2-1 at our place and lost 2-1 here. There is nothing between the teams but they are sixth in the league.

"There are a lot of good things to take out of this game despite the scoreline so we have got to keep going.

"People go on about needing to score goals but if I had £9m to spend on a striker like Angel or £5m on someone like Crouch we might get some more goals but I haven't got that."