Aston Villa looking for a top-four spot

Two goals from Gabriel Agbonlahor secured a 2-0 win for Aston Villa against a toothless Fulham side at Craven Cottage.

Stiliyan Petrov crossed from the right touchline and the ball evaded Chris Smalling as the Villa striker opened the scoring.

And the England man took advantage of some poor defending to turn Brede Hangeland and curl in a superb second.

Fulham's dominated the second half with Zoltan Gera and David Elm going close but Villa held on.

Martin O'Neill's side may have beaten Blackburn in the Carling Cup semi-final to reach a cup final for the first time in a decade, but their league form has suffered an alarming recent dip.

The midweek goalless draw with Arsenal, although creditable, was Villa's fourth league game without a win or a goal in a spell where they have collected only two points.

O'Neill was furious with Wenger's comments but with Petrov and James Milner pulling the strings in midfield and the defence looking comfortable, Villa began to get on top.

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson:
"We conceded two goals in a short space of time and at half-time it didn't seem that we deserved that.
"I was concerned that we would lose our shape and you can face a catastrophe.

"We definitely dominated and took the game to them but ran up against a very solid defence and didn't create enough chances."

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill:
"We had been in a very good run up until we played at the Emirates before Christmas but after that we should have beaten Liverpool and West Ham.

"There has been a lot made of the fact we haven't scored a goal in four games so it was nice to right that today. They are three very valuable points as we try to stay with the leading pack.

"We played very well. We were the team pressing in the first half and we got the goals which I think our play deserved.

"In the second half it was a case of sitting on what we had but we saw it through reasonably comfortably and I thought it was an excellent performance."