Villa boss backs Gabby for magic 50

Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor heads to Stoke aiming to reach 50 goals for the club with boss Martin O'Neill insisting the milestone would be just reward.

The England international is expected to recover from a stomach bug in time for tomorrow's trip to the Britannia Stadium, after the manager confirmed the player trained yesterday and was feeling "a lot better."

A homegrown hero and Villa's leading scorer this season with 14 goals, Agbonlahor has a good chance of reaching his claret and blue half-century with 49 so far and O'Neill believes it would be well deserved for progress made by the 23-year-old.

The manager said: "Gabby has been in the first team consistently here since I've been at the football club. It's pleasing. I think he's done really well – 50 goals is a significant milestone and it would be great if he could get to it.

"I'm very pleased with him, although there's lots of things he could still improve at, which he is aware of.

"The very fact he is hovering on the periphery of the England squad might tell you something – and they've got a few to choose from."

Agbonlahor is likely to start up front alongside John Carew at the expense of Emile Heskey, after the Norway star's treble inspired Villa to come from two down to beat Reading 4-2 in last Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final.

O'Neill hopes the goals can kickstart Carew's campaign.

The Villa boss said: "We have seen this in the past. We sit here and we have these conversations at the time. John had a great, great end to last year, he came in and scored several goals for us. It's that consistent application, which is vitally important – this goes for any player.

"We are playing for really big stakes here so, at the end of it all, the normal fundamentals of a professional footballer apply here."