Aston Villa goal hero and self-confessed "pub player" Curtis Davies hopes he has left manager Martin O'Neill with  a selection headache after scoring on his full league debut.

There was more than a little irony in his performance in that it almost mirrored that of the debut of the man he hopes to replace in the starting XI - Villa centre-half Zat Knight, who also scored with a header in his first appearance for the club in the 2-0 defeat of Chelsea back in September.

Davies has had to bide his time on the sidelines since joining Villa on loan from West Bromwich Albion in the summer and only made it in the line-up against Wigan Athletic on Saturday because Knight was serving a one-match ban after being shown the red card in the Boxing Day battle of Stamford Bridge.

The former England Under-21 star last started a match in the Carling Cup in the autumn, when he later drew headlines for his brutally harsh claims that he felt he had played 'like a pub player' in Villa's defeat at the hands of Leicester City.

But Davies made no such errors this time, earning the man-of-the-match accolade, not just for his headed contribution to pull Villa back from 1-0 down against Steve Bruce's men, but an overall performance in the second half which saw him put in some telling tackles and vital challenges to keep his side in the game.

Davies said afterwards: "I am just happy to have played. I was becoming the most interviewed man to never get a game, so at least I have played now! I know I got the goal and we won and we always wanted to win but I am just delighted to have finally played a game."

Davies admitted that, at times, his spell on the sidelines had got him down. He said: "It has been a frustrating wait but hopefully now I will get another chance against Tottenham.

"It is my job to get stuck in, especially in a game like that, but it was a bit of a muddy pitch and we just had to make sure we stayed solid and put our foot in on everything. I hope the gaffer is going to have a few headaches now for a couple of days and if I am selected against Tottenham, I can go out and show him what I can do again."

Villa against Tottenham tomorrow afternoon is certainly a mouthwatering prospect now - the two sides drew 4-4 in a thriller at White Hart Lane earlier this season while Spurs recorded England professional football's most impressive victory of the weekend on Saturday when defeating Reading 6-4.

Davies said: "Against players like Berbatov, Keane and Defoe, you would expect to be busy. That is the Premier League and the class of player you are up against but, hopefully, if I play I can show a few people what I am about.

He continued: "We are definitely up for it and the best players are there to be shot at, so I hope I can be there facing Tottenham. At the end of the day, all of the Spurs forwards are great strikers and you can't take anything away from any of them. Whoever is put in my way, if I am selected, I will be there trying to shoot them down."

Davies knows quite a few of Tottenham's young guns from his England Under-21 days. He said: "I know Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone, Darren Bent and a few of them but I always say there are no friends in football!

"At the end of the day, I will be looking to get three points off them and then maybe shake hands with them afterwards."

The defender believes the Villa faithful can once again play their part tomorrow, just as they did at Wigan with 5,000 making the trip northwards up the M6.

He said: "The fans were great and really kept us going. I think you noticed them even more because Wigan didn't have many but that was the thing about them, they kept us going.

"It is very important having fans like that home and away - it just pushes you through and they made a big contribution to why we did so well."

Davies also knows the pitch at Villa Park will be more conducive to Villa's pass-and-move style of football after the quagmire of the JJB Stadium. He said: "That pitch was a big test. When you come out as a defender to see it all muddy like that you think 'what are we in for?' But you just have to try not to end up like Bambi on ice.

"I am not sure what the regime is at Wigan with regards to the pitch, perhaps they want it like that to stop you playing football. At the end of the day, we showed the level of our ability in that we could cope with it and we still managed to get a result and do well. Come the sort of game which is a football game, then we will come back to that."

He added: "I think we took good heart from the Chelsea performance and, although we didn't win the game, to go behind twice and then come back into it, we were delighted.

"Although we beat Chelsea a few weeks ago, I don't think many people would have believed that we would get anything there on Boxing Day. To go there and get a point and then get the away win at Wigan gives us a good platform to go back to Villa Park and give as good a performance as we can against Spurs."