Aston Villa hero Mark Walters says they need to buy experience this week.

Walters believes there is talent in the squad, having helped develop some of the current crop of homegrown youngsters when he worked as a coach for the Bodymoor Heath academy.

But he fears for them if Lambert, Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner stick to their apparent plan of not recruiting experienced characters to strengthen their survival chances.

"It's been a disappointing week and a disappointing season, frankly," Walters told the Birmingham Mail.

"For most of these players it's their first season and they've only got 20 or 30 league games under their belt.

"When you're at that stage of your career, you either sink or swim.

"I coached a couple of them in the academy when I was there at Villa and these are good players in a couple of years. But at the moment it's difficult.

"Frankly it's a bit unfair of the club to put all this pressure on them, they need some experienced players to help them but unfortunately they haven't got that."