Villa's away run delighting O'Neill

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The win was Villa's third in succession on their travels, and the way in which they polished off 10-man Rovers after recovering from a shaky start suggests a top-four finish is not out of the question.

O'Neill said: "I'm delighted with a win of any sort. But I'm especially delighted to have got four on the spot, and three of those away from home."

He added: "It's great for us, and confidence is very high at the moment. I thought for the first half-hour we were second-best. But our big goals are turning games, and I thought our second-half performance was excellent."

John Carew opened the scoring with a 29th-minute header, and Gareth Barry added the second from the spot following the incident in which Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen was sent off.

The superb Ashley Young fired a goal of his own 10 minutes from time, and late substitute Marlon Harewood completed the rout.

Rovers boss Mark Hughes admitted he felt a little hard done by, not least because his side dominated the opening stages - with David Dunn, Nelsen and David Bentley all coming close.

The game truly turned in the 53rd minute when Nelsen tugged Young's shirt in the box - and, as well as pointing to the spot, referee Phil Dowd also issued the defender with a straight red card.

Hughes said: "I think he's given it for a shirt pull, and it was probably the right decision. But I don't think it warranted a sending-off, in fairness.

"From that point on, we were trying to get back into the game at 2-0 down. But they got a couple of breakaways, both of which I had my doubts about - because I thought they might be offside."