O'Neill hails Friedel

12 April 2012

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill hailed Brad Friedel as one of the all-time great Premier League goalkeepers after the American helped his side defeat West Ham and climb into third place.

Friedel, 37, again proved himself to be one of the signings of the season by keeping out Craig Bellamy, Carlton Cole and Calum Davenport with his best saves at Upton Park.

O'Neill, who bought Friedel for £2million from Blackburn in the summer, said after the 1-0 win: "He was really class. He's come up big for us."

He added: "I was comparing that to Peter Schmeichel being sensational for Manchester United and I played with two unbelievable keepers - Pat Jennings and Peter Shilton.

"Friedel has not played all those games for Blackburn and us not to be considered as good as anyone else. He was outstanding and it would have been something special to have beaten him."

Friedel kept the visitors level with his saves, then James Milner helped produce a winner when his cross 12 minutes from full-time deflected in off Lucas Neill.

O'Neill felt it was what Milner deserved after playing against Bolton and Everton despite being ill.

"You get your rewards somewhere along the way," O'Neill said. "He has a big, big heart, a lot of ability and he will also improve."

O'Neill's side overtook Manchester United in the table but he is still playing down talk about reaching the Champions League.

"We didn't play half as well as we did against Arsenal but I'm delighted that we won," he added. "I believe the top four can go on sustained runs and we still have to learn that art."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in