If you held a poll amongst the Holte End regarding Villa's most popular players, then it is safe to assume Mark Delaney would finish in the top five.

However, while Delaney is currently flavour of the month with Villa fans after a string of impressive performances, Jlloyd Samuel is still suffering from a crisis of confidence.

The 24-year-old left-back received some rough treatment from a section of supporters during Saturday's defeat against West Ham.

It visibly affected Samuel, although he responded in the perfect manner by providing an excellent cross for Lee Hendrie to score his first Prem iership goal of the campaign.

However, while Delaney is eternally grateful for the support he has received from Villa's fans during his impasse with the club over contract negotiations, he believes that Samuel is receiving a rough deal.

Samuel has only appeared in nine Premiership fixtures this season and has slipped behind Wilfred Bouma and Gareth Barry in the pecking order and, allied to the criticism he has received from the Villa Park stands, it has left Samuel contemplating his future.

Yet Delaney is convinced that constant barracking is counter-productive to all parties.

"The fans are still treating Jlloyd a bit unfairly in my eyes," said Delaney. "He is a player I admire who has done well for the club and it hasn't been easy for him coming in and out of the side and getting booed.

"The fans have their own thoughts and their own minds and it's not for me to tell them what to do. It is their decision.

"I'm just saying that from all the players' point of view, and Jlloyd's own point of view, it is not helping him, really.

"I feel strongly for him, but he is a strong character and after setting up the goal he did go on from strength to strength in the first half. However, the team as a whole didn't perform in the second half."

Nevertheless, with Albion winning to close the gap on Villa to just three points, O'Leary's team cannot afford any repetition this season.

Chelsea and Blackburn aside, they have six fixtures against teams in the bottom half of the Premiership, which affords them ample opportunity to create real daylight between the bottom four and themselves.

Delaney regards the second-half collapse against West Ham as a short-term aberration, as opposed to anything terminal.

"If you go on a bad run now, you are dragged into it," he continued. "But I think we are a side that is going in the right direction. Hopefully, that defeat was a minor blip and we can start again.

"There are a big bunch of teams around us, but we have to be looking at another run of results like we had over the Christmas period to push us into the top half.

"The manager was rightly disappointed after the game and asked us where that performance came from after doing so well in the first half.

"We looked as if we were a bit frightened of being 1-0 up to be honest and why that is, I don't know. We should have been more positive, but it has gone now and we need to start afresh this week and prepare for a difficult trip to White Hart Lane."

John Toshack was amongst the 36,700 present at Villa Park last Saturday to keep tabs on Delaney ahead of Wales' 2008 European Championship qualifying campaign.

Delaney, who is still on the transfer list, will be an integral part of the Wales managers' plans, as they try to qualify for their first major finals since 1958.

Toshack's broom has swept clean a lot of the old guard and Delaney is now a senior member of the squad.

However, while he insists he would love to captain his country at some juncture in the future, he is aware that the present incumbent of that role is a living legend in Wales.

"Someone called Ryan Giggs, has got the captaincy at present, and he's a pretty good player," said Delaney with a smile.

"Nevertheless, I've still got aspirations. I've got 34 caps and I can still go on hopefully for another three, four, five years. Later down the line, then who knows?"