Villa won all three of their away games against Blackburn, Middlesbrough and ManchesterCity and were secured draws at Villa Park against Everton, Wigan and Portsmouth. The spell has seen O'Neill guide the side away from the danger area and to a guaranteed eleventh place in the Premiership table. They could even finish in the top half if Blackburn fail to win in either of their remaining games and Villa beat Bolton on the last day of the season. O'Neill has won the award four times, his last coming in November 1999 when he was manager at Leicester.
