Former Aston Villa star Stan Collymore was delighted to see Emile Heskey get on the scoresheet in the Carling Cup win over Portsmouth.

The Villa News & Record columnist said: "I know Emile very well from our days at Leicester and I'll never forget the one game we had together.

"We beat Sunderland 5-2 and I scored a hat-trick. He set up a couple of my goals too.

"I'm certainly one of the band of strikers who have nothing but praise for him.

"I was delighted to see him score his first goal of the season at Burnley and then follow it up the other night with another against Portsmouth in the Carling Cup.

"Hopefully those will silence his critics. He has had a lot of stick in recent weeks and in my opinion it's totally unjustified.

"While people cast doubts over his scoring record, I can't speak highly enough of him - and I'm sure you would get the same response from people like Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney, who have benefited enormously from playing alongside him.

"In terms of his overall contribution to a team, Emile is vastly underrated and he's very much a players' player.

"He is obviously an experienced player too who can help to bring on Villa's youngsters and he's a nice lad who fits in well in the dressing room.

"He's a lovely down-to-earth lad and Martin has worked with him before so I reckon Villa will definitely get the best out of him."