Juan Pablo Angel has been there before and bounced back. Now it is the turn of Milan Baros to suffer a loss of form, a loss of confidence, and, seemingly, a loss of fitness.

The two strikers began Aston Villa's match against Fulham and, while both were substituted, only Angel did himself justice. Baros has not begun life under Martin O'Neill well but Angel is backing his team-mate to produce the goods.

Villa drew, without playing well, and Angel declined to take a penalty. Gareth Barry scored it but Villa were largely uninspiring. The form of Baros is causing particular concern, however, and it appears that the Czech Republic striker is still not fully over his leg injury that played havoc with his World Cup campaign in Germany three months ago.

"Milan is a quality player," Angel said. "I didn't think this was a particular good day for the strikers. We have to really work hard but we didn't have that many chances and it was one of those times.

"I am sure when he starts to score goals he will show how important he is for us and we need him at his best because he is a quality player as he has shown it before. Things will come right.

"You have those times in your career but you have no doubt about Milan. He is a quality player and he will overcome this situation, no danger."

Baros joined Villa in the summer of 2005 and, while he was the leading scorer last season, he has never looked like the player who finished Euro 2004 with the golden boot and who won a European Cup winners' medal with Liverpool the year after.

Villa remain unbeaten but have won only one of their past six Premiership matches. "We didn't play particularly well against Fulham," Angel said.

"We scored a penalty and thought we were going to have more chances and should have killed off the game but it didn't happen and then we let them score and after that there was nothing else for us in the game and it was really disappointing.

"We have to start picking up points and winning games if we want to be well up the table. It's all right to remain unbeaten but we need to get results and everyone is feeling down because we should have won the game.

"The expectation has grown over the last few weeks because of our performance and we have shown people we can be in the higher part of the table.

"But we have got to cope with expectations and keep going and keep working hard and winning games because that is the only thing that will keep us in a good place. If we were right, we would have won it. Credit to Fulham in getting back after going a goal down and they kept us out.

"We had a few half-chances but there was nothing left in the game for us.

"This was one of those games where we didn't play particularly well but we know what we have to do to change it and we have got the right man behind us to do it and we've got a massive week ahead. The confidence is high."

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