After one all draw against Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, Aston Villa boss, Martin O'Neill has hailed his four center backs for producing another stubborn performance.

"I've had some very, very fine defenders in my time, both at Leicester and at Celtic. Some very, very fine players who had the same mentality as these lads.

"They are prepared to be very, very brave when it is demanded."

"I think that the players who have come in to the football club just in the last week of the August transfer deadline have transformed us really," he told club’s official website.

"Dunne, Collins and Warnock - who has been injured the last couple of weeks - have been really fantastic.

"Considering we knew that Curtis Davies was going to be out for about four months with his injury, that was so, so important for us because I'm not sure where we'd be without them.

The manager further applauded Friedel for being exceptional and he believes this is so because of the competition between him and his fellow Brad Guzan.

"I just think Friedel has been exceptional," added the Villa mentor. "In the last number of weeks now, his performances have been terrific.

"He's having a great time. I think he has been reinvigorated with the coming in of Brad Guzan. They get on very well together but there is a bit of competition."

Tottenham enjoyed the ball possession in the second half but O'Neill’s orchestra managed to contain them and the boss did not hold his words but to congratulate his side for holding Spurs.

"It was difficult. I thought the first half was very, very open," he added. "I thought that we could maybe have made a wee bit more use of some of the counter-attacks we had. Generally we do.

"Tottenham are a very fine side and they pegged us back in the second half.

"In the last 20 minutes of the game, they were putting it into the penalty area, which is absolutely their prerogative to do that.

The coach also applauded Peter Crouch describing him, as he is more than handful.

"Peter Crouch is a handful. He is more than a handful - he is a very, very fine player and he is terrific in the air.

"If we couldn't win the first one we were trying to scramble around to win the second one and we managed to see it through."

Photo source: footballfancast