Downing delight at return (From The Northern Echo)

Downing delight at return

9:35am Thursday 3rd December 2009

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ASTON VILLA winger Stewart Downing has revealed his frustration after six months on the sidelines, but now has Wembley in his sights following his goalscoring comeback.

The 25-year-old suffered a fractured foot while playing for Middlesbrough, ironically against Villa, in May.

He made his first appearance for Villa as a substitute against Burnley on November 21 and his first start on Tuesday night resulted in a goal against Portsmouth which helped send his new club into the last four of the Carling Cup.

‘‘It has been frustrating but the main thing is I am through it now, through the Portsmouth game and I got a goal,’’ said the £12m signing.

‘‘I think I just got more and more confident as the game went on. There were some cracking goals and I am so pleased we are in the hat now for the next round.

‘‘It was a great night for everyone at the club. It was a tremendous win.’’ England winger Downing also has the incentive of the World Cup at the end of the season, although his main focus at the moment is getting back to full fitness and playing regularly under club manager Martin O’Neill.

He added: ‘‘The manager just said to me to go out and enjoy it and that’s what I did.

Obviously the fans have been looking at me as the new signing and as the new player.

‘‘It was nice to hear them sing my name and give me added confidence.’’ Villa winger Ashley Young is relishing being in the same team as Downing, with both of them providing O’Neill with genuine width.

‘‘He was fantastic,’’ Young said. ‘‘He’s been out for a long while, not that you could tell.

He put on a great performance and managed to bag a goal too.

‘‘We wanted to get into that semi-final and we’ve done it.

We’re delighted. We knew it was going to be tough.’’ Meanwhile, Middlesbrough defender Sean St Ledger is refusing to give up on automatic promotion The Teessiders are in tenth place in the Championship table, 13 points behind leaders Newcastle and still looking for their first win under new boss Gordon Strachan.

It will be Strachan’s fifth attempt at QPR on Saturday and St Ledger said: “Coming down from the Premier League, they (the fans) thought it was going to be a stroll, and as you can see from the results in this league, it’s never going to be like that.

“Newcastle are top of the league, but they have had some indifferent results as well. At the moment, we are finding it tough to get a winning run together, but if we can do that, we can shoot back up the table.”

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