Football
ESPN staff 9y

Tim Sherwood team talk helped Aston Villa to victory, says Shay Given

New Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood inspired them to FA Cup victory over Leicester City when he gave the half-time team talk at Villa Park, Shay Given has said.

Goalkeeper Given, Man of the Match in Villa's 2-1 win, said Sherwood -- appointed as successor to the sacked Paul Lambert on Saturday -- had urged the players to express themselves after a drab, forgettable first half had ended goalless.

Villa went ahead through Leandro Bacuna after the break and doubled their lead through substitute Scott Sinclair before Leicester's record signing Andrej Kramaric got a goal back.

Given, who will be 39 in April, put in a sterling performance, producing an outstanding stop to deny Matty James.

"When the new manager comes in it's a clean slate for everyone. I have plenty to offer and I hope that Tim sees that today,'' the keeper, who played alongside Sherwood at Blackburn, told BBC One.

"He was very positive -- he's always a positive guy. He told us to go and express ourselves."

Villa sacked Lambert after a poor run that has seen them drop into the Premier League's bottom three, and Given hopes the cup win can kick-start their season.

"We have to take confidence. We scored two goals, and we have struggled to score goals," he added. "We will take belief from that as well and use this momentum to take into our league games."

Villa caretaker boss Scott Marshall, speaking to the BBC, said: Sport: "I think he [Sherwood] will have seen the spirit in the dressing room, and hopefully that will continue into the league over the next few weeks.

"He made a few points to the lads. The boys took them on board and delivered in the second half."

"The game was great today -- the boys produced a good performance. The most important thing was the energy, and the togetherness was good."

Leicester manager Nigel Pearson, meanwhile, was left to reflect on another afternoon in which his team had failed to make the most of their opportunities.

"We have to take our chances -- we had chances in the first half," he said. "The first 15 minutes I don't think we were very fluent with the ball, but after that we did pretty well. In the second half, we just could not keep hold of the ball."

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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