Lambert begs for protest call off

Beleaguered Aston Villa manager, Paul Lambert, is begging the club's irate support to call off a protest planned for the start of Saturday’s match at home to Liverpool.

Three Villa websites – The Villa Blog, My Old Man Said and A Villa Fan – have called on Holte Enders to boycott the opening eight minutes of the Premier
League match via an open letter. They claim that each minute represents a year for the eight that the club’s owner, Randy Lerner, has been in charge and they have had enough at the way the club is being run and the direction it is going.

The call for action, which has divided the Villa faithful, comes after Lambert's charges have managed to score just 11 league goals this season in 21 games, easily the worst record in the country. Following Saturday’s depressing 1-0 defeat to Leicester, who could have won by a damn sight more, the patience of the away following was tested to its limits and the fans turned on Lambert, calling for him to be sacked.

The Birmingham Mail held a poll asking whether Lambert should be axed or given more time, with 67% demanding that he go. Lambert is feeling the heat.

“I understand the frustration and nobody is more frustrated than myself,” said Lambert. “Everybody involved with Aston Villa is frustrated at what has happened over the last five or six years since Martin O’Neill left and the team was in the top six.

“Martin had this club buzzing at that time, vying for Europe, going great, and what’s happened has happened. But I don’t think you can look at the chairman and say it’s one guy’s fault. It’s unfair. He has the club’s interest at heart. I understand the fans’ frustrations but we’ll have a better chance of winning a game of football if they don’t protest, if they stick with the lads, no matter how hard it gets at times.

“When the stadium is behind the players it’s a great place to play football and we’ve a better chance of winning if they don’t do it. Whoever has planned it, I hope the guy next to them tries to keep them on their seat. I don’t want Aston Villa fans to come to Villa Park – or even away from home – and not see the team win or not be entertained.”

Quizzed on how he feels about calls for his head, he replied: “It’s not great. I’m human, like everybody else, but I’m also big enough and strong enough mentally to handle it. But what I don’t want it to do is affect the players.

The fans have been great with me up until late, and I guess now they are waiting for something to go wrong. All I would say to them is stay behind the side. We need their support when times are tough.”

Lambert insists he will not quit, saying: “I want to make a success of this. I’m obviously not happy with the way things are going, with what’s happening in the last third of the pitch. But anybody that knows me knows I’m not one for downing tools and walking away. I’ve never done that in my football career, and I don’t intend to do it now.”