Brad Guzan believes Villa highlighted their strength in depth after seeing off the challenge of Slavia Prague in spite of a host of personnel changes.

Martin O'Neill decided to freshen things up in the second UEFA Cup group stage game against the Czech champions after admitting some of his first-choice XI were looking weary.

Guzan, Zat Knight, Curtis Davies, Craig Gardner, Moustapha Salifou and Steve Sidwell all came into the side and produced exemplary performances to see Villa through in the Eden Stadium.

The USA shot-stopper believes the fringe stars rewarded Martin O'Neill's faith when it really mattered.

He told AVTV: "It was a great result to pick up three points on the road and to keep a clean sheet.

"I think the new lads who came in did a great job.

"We showed we can produce performances both home and away - and the squad has great strength in depth.

"The manager put a lot of trust in a lot of guys - and some who haven't seen a great deal of action - and I think they rewarded that.

"We knew coming in that it was going to be a really difficult game - all of these European ties will be. So we had the mindset that we needed to stay together and make sure we didn't get exposed.

"They are a good footballing side and they pass it very well and try to attack. But in the end I thought we did well to deal with their threat going forward, particularly in the second half.

"There was no sense of panic near the end but obviously with a minute or so left we were just trying to keep the ball outside our 18-yard box.

"And then they have to do something special to beat us."

Subscribers can now watch the interview on AVTV. If you don't subscribe, click below.