Premier League: Aston Villa overcome fellow strugglers Norwich at Carrow Road

Sunday 5 May 2013 07:53, UK

Aston Villa offered their survival bid another welcome shot in the arm as Gabriel Agbonlahor carried them to a 2-1 win over Norwich City and on to 40 points for the season.

Paul Lambert was delighted with the effort put in by his Aston Villa side, with the same starting XI which hammered Sunderland 6-1 on Monday claiming another important three-point haul. He told Sky Sports: "Everyone says the 40-point mark is the magical mark - we'll have to wait and see. One game today has certainly put us right up there. "It was a big, big effort today - more so than Monday night's game because of the situation surrounding Aston Villa coming here. It was a big effort because the lads were tired, we went with the same team, but all credit to them because they were mentally strong to get over the line." Norwich manager Chris Hughton was disappointed to end the game empty-handed, but concedes that the Canaries can only have themselves to blame for their struggles. He told Sky Sports: "It's disappointing and frustrating because it's not a game that we should have lost, it's not a game that we deserved to lose. "We have conceded two poor goals today. It's very difficult when you do that, it means you have got to score three goals at home. I thought the performance was good, we didn't have the cutting edge when we needed to."