Wanderers will be looking to maintain the good run of home form against Aston Villa this weekend, having won four of their five previous fixtures at the Reebok Stadium.

Ahead of Saturday's meeting between the two sides, manager Gary Megson offered his pre-match thoughts at his customary weekly press conference.

Gary, after back to back away games it is Aston Villa at home.
We want to get back to winning ways at the Reebok like we have been, and we want a performance like we got last time we were here against Middlesbrough. It is going to be a difficult game against Aston Villa, regardless of their current form. They have an exceptional squad and have had a fantastic season.

On reflection, how would you assess last weekend's trip to Fratton Park?
We didn't play particularly well at Portsmouth but I don't think they battered us. I thought that the game was going to finish as a stalemate. I did feel that, although it was a terrific ball in for the goal, it was a foul from Kanu on Jussi, but it doesn't particularly matter what's gone on in the past, it's what we do from this point onwards. We want to finish strongly.

With five matches left, three of which are at home, how important is it to finish on a run of good form?
Everyone will want to do that. What will happen is that some of the teams that are involved in the Champions League will have a priority towards that, and that will throw up some strange results like it did last year. There were times last year when we benefitted from playing teams who had distractions.

Some of the teams that were battling against relegation suddenly found themselves safe and they maybe weren't the clubs that we could have faced two months earlier, and that will happen again.

We have got to make sure that we roll our sleeves up, battle and scrap because some of the teams that are below us will finish strongly like we did last year. Consequently we have to make sure that they don't make any ground on ourselves.

Is it a good time to be playing Aston Villa?
I don't think there is a good or a bad time because they have got terrific players. They were looking to get into the top four and Champions League football, but with the Premier League being what it is, it's very difficult.

The fact that Villa aren't on the best run of form that they have had this season doesn't make a great deal of a difference. They strengthened in the January transfer window what was already a strong squad. It will be a difficult game for us.

How is it looking with the injured players, especially Danny Shittu and Ricardo Gardner?
They will train this morning and we will see how they are. Joey O'Brien is out and has been for a long time, Mark Davies is getting closer but he won't be available.

Is there any point in this season when the players will be able to relax slightly?
Our priority is to get enough points on the board to put the club in the best possible finishing position that we can achieve, and that aim doesn't alter. The players deserve great credit for what they have achieved so far, but that is only so far and we need to maintain our determination and focus.