Lee Hendrie is calling upon Aston Villa to regain their pride in Saturday's Barclays Premiership clash at high-riding Everton.

The former England midfielder branded Villa's performance as "rubbish" in Tuesday's shock 3-1 defeat at Burnley in the Carling Cup.

Hendrie believes Villa owe it to their travelling supporters to put up a far better performance when they take on David Moyes' side.

Hendrie said: "I just want to say sorry to the fans who travelled on Tuesday to Burnley because our showing just wasn't good enough.

"They had paid a lot of money to travel and watch the game and in all honesty we were rubbish.

"I've been at Villa for a long time now and that is probably the worst that I've known. I'm a Villa fan myself and it really hurt me.

"Irrespective of whether we win on Saturday, we have to put in a performance which is a million times better and immediately put things right.

"We're just hoping that what happened at Burnley gave us the kick up the backside that we needed."

On a more positive note, Villa central defender Martin Laursen has resumed full training with Villa after more than two months out of action with a knew problem.

The Danish international, signed for £3million from AC Milan in the summer, suffered the setback against Charlton at The Valley in only his third match in Villa's colours.

With Liam Ridgewell also back to fitness, manager David O'Leary's defensive injury crisis is slowly starting to ease.

There is even a chance that full-back Jlloyd Samuel will have recovered from the shoulder injury sustained at Turf Moor in time to face Everton.