Gerrard urges Villa to use ‘belief and confidence’ to build momentum

Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard is hoping his side can use their win over Brighton last time out to build some momentum going forward.

Southampton head to Villa Park on the back of a seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions, taking 10 points from their last four Premier League games and beating West Ham in midweek to set up an FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester City.

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Villa endured a run of just one win in eight matches before the much-needed 2-0 victory at Brighton and Gerrard wants to see more consistency from his side as they bid to make a strong end to the season.

“We can certainly see the belief and the confidence on the back of that result,” Gerrard said.

“The players knew that they’d put in a really strong performance, they were really difficult to play against and at the right times we went and hurt Brighton.

“Our game plan certainly played off, the players went and delivered that and it was on the back of a couple of tough weeks, so you can certainly see a bit of a release and relief in them by getting that win.

“Now it’s all about backing it up this weekend going into a home fixture. We don’t want to be inconsistent.”

Gerrard is full of praise for the job being done at Southampton by Ralph Hasenhuttl, but also of the support he has received from the club’s board in more testing times, most notably after the 9-0 defeats to Leicester and Manchester United.

Tomorrow: #AVLSOU.

Steven Gerrard joined the media this afternoon ahead of the visit of Southampton on Saturday.

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— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) March 4, 2022

“It’s a classic case of an ownership at Southampton that’s really backed the manager,