Steven Gerrard feels Aston Villa can build on Friday night’s victory against Southampton.
The head coach was heartened by aspects of his team’s display as they fought hard to end a four-game winless run with a 1-0 success at Villa Park.
While his side wasn’t full of fluidity in attack, Gerrard was pleased with how they ground out a win against the Saints.
He said: “It feels nice. You can win football matches in different ways.
“We’ve lost football matches since I’ve been here by playing well and that feels really terrible, so to win today in the way we did wasn’t stylish or pretty but it was full of guts, full of fight and full of togetherness.
“It was a really strong performance out of possession and the boys deserve credit for that.”
Gerrard added: “I thought we were really good to a certain point and then we had a little bit of anxiety in our play.
“We were forcing the last pass, we didn’t have enough quality in our last little bit but we managed to force the breakthrough.
“From there, we managed the game really well and to limit them to no chances on your goal always gives you a chance.”
Jacob Ramsey was in the right place to lash home the decisive goal after 41 minutes following a spell of pressure on the visitors’ goal.
But it was Villa’s performance at the other end of the pitch that was a major plus point from the evening as they kept a first clean sheet of the season.
“I’m pleased with the clean sheet just as much as the win because it gives us something to build on,” Gerrard said.
“We should go to Leeds now with a lot more confidence. Our last two performances have been strong.
“As we move up the table we’ll feel more relaxed and more calm. I’m very confident that we’ll have enough quality in the squad to play prettier stuff, but we must always have the character and be able to stick together. We’ve shown that in abundance the last two games.”
