Martin O'Neill saw Villa end the season with a 2-2 draw at West Ham to book a place in next term's Intertoto Cup and reflected: "It's been a really fantastic effort."

Villa had the better of things at Upton Park and goals from Ashley Young and Gareth Barry looked to have secured a deserved victory before Dean Ashton levelled a minute before the final whistle. ]

Earlier Nobby Solano opened the scoring for the Hammers but Villa once again showed the ability to fight back.

O'Neill told www.avfc.co.uk: "We didn't quite get the result we wanted but we created an incredible number of chances - especially in the second-half. All in all it was a good afternoon in terms of a spectacle.

"I think we had a period of 10 or 15 minutes where we were just scintillating, really terrific. In a lot of ways this afternoon epitomised the season for us.

"Sometimes we've come up short and sometimes we've had disappointments but overall I could not praise the players highly enough. It's been a really fantastic effort.

"I think that a number of the West Ham players coming off have been very complimentary to our team. I think we won a few friends for our performance."

The Villa boss added: "The fans were terrific again. It nearly goes without saying but it's something we should never take for granted.

"We showed a lot of character coming from behind. It would be interesting to look at the number of times I've spoken after games about us fighting back.

"We're as good as any side in the Premier League at fighting back and that shows great character. It would be better if we could take the lead more often and give ourselves a bit of a chance!"

Finally O'Neill had a word of praise for Nigel Reo-Coker who ignored ceaseless taunts from the home crowd to create both Villa goals on his first return to Upton Park.

He said: "Nigel really contributed to the performance. He knew he was going to be barracked left, right and centre from the crowd and he responded magnificently."

See AVTV Online for much more post-match reaction.