Smells like team spirit to Lambert

Lambert feels his players will reap the benefits of the experience gained this season should they manage to survive.

Villa will be bidding for a third successive league win for the first time in nearly three years when they take on Liverpool on Sunday.

Lambert believes another Villa victory would have teams above them looking over their shoulder at the possibility of being dragged into a scrap to stay up.

He said: "The lads have kept on going. We've been around and about there (the bottom three) for the whole season.

"They are handling the pressure of it, so it's not new for them, they know exactly what they've got to try to do.

"The fact they are not wilting under everything is great. It's nothing new for us going into this game. It might be for a few others.

"When you start to win games, you start to pull other people into it who maybe feel a bit edgy over it.

"We are only four points away from 11th. A few weeks ago, everyone thought 11th spot would be miles clear of trouble.

"It just shows you, one or two wins, you pull everyone back into it. If we can win Sunday it certainly puts pressure on people and keeps you looking up the table, which everyone wants to do."

Lambert is happy with the performances of his side in recent weeks and the progress being made by his players.

He said: "It (a relegation battle) is not something you want to go through.

"But in a roundabout way, if we survive this season, it might be a blessing because you've been through really tough times at various points in the season.

"The year's experience will certainly help the players. There's no two ways about it. They are getting better every game.

"The lads have the belief they know they can go and win games."

Villa looked to be on an upward curve after winning 3-1 at Anfield in December but then suffered a poor run of results including conceding 15 goals without reply in the next three games.

Lambert said: "You don't look too far ahead in football and think you're the finished article, whether you have great players or not.

"It's a really dangerous game if you do that. You can never see the future and what is going to happen in football.

"That day at Anfield we were excellent but then we went on a run when we couldn't do anything right even though the effort was there.

"That sometimes make you stronger when you come through those sort of periods of getting beat and beat.

"In the last few weeks we've been playing really well and you take that into the game rather what we did at Anfield.

"The Anfield game has long gone, finished. It's about what we've done in the last few weeks and we are playing well."