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Remi Garde could have found the men to pull off the second Great Escape in Premier League history.

The wounds of a terrible season are healing and two weeks after Aston Villa fans savaged their players for a dire display in the FA Cup at Wycombe they stood and applauded.

On the same pitch 11 years earlier, West Brom saved ­themselves from relegation with a last-day win from a situation every bit as bad as Villa’s.

And after five games unbeaten, two in the cup, Garde is looking for the sequel. He has sorted the men from the boys and all he needs now is victories.

West Brom were bottom with 13 points from 23 games in January 2005, the same as Villa now. The Baggies had won once and drawn ten. Villa have won two and drawn seven.

In pictures - West Brom 0-0 Aston Villa:

Boing Boing Baggies then won five and drew six of their last 15 to stay up with 34 points, better than relegated Crystal Palace, Norwich and Southampton.

Villa should have won this local derby and really got lift off and Garde was disappointed they didn’t after dominating most of it.

He’s a quiet, urban French man, but he’s tough. “The door is closed for those who don’t have the right attitude,” he says. “You cannot only play on your talent. You have to play for the team and work hard. This is what we have shown in the last five games.

“These are men. It’s very important in the Premier League to have this attitude. In any league you cannot play football if you don’t play like a man. When you arrive in the middle of the season it is difficult to assess the players and how they behave, how they are as human beings.

(Image: Michael Regan)

“It took me a long time to do it and make choices. But that’s what I did a few weeks ago.”

What Garde needs now is a goal scorer.

Gabby Agbonlahor used to be one but he hasn’t got a goal in ten months and he’s one of those who has to persuade Garde to open the door.

If there was football nous on the Villa board instead of business-speak a £3m offer for Charlie Austin might have brought freshness, goals and spark to an immense challenge.

(Image: Neville Williams)

Garde hopes something happens in the transfer window. “I don’t know exactly what. We will see. Sometimes the end period of the transfer window is active.”

Ben Foster, back for his first Premier League game in ten months after injury, had few saves to make. The fact that West Brom did not have one shot on goal for the second successive game tells you how bad they were.

“We won’t give up until the end,” pledges Garde. “Maybe some have, not any of my players, but some (outside people). Our job is to fight until the end and I have said I will be the last one to give up.”

Joleon Lescott, along with another experienced man, Micah Richards, were the pillars of this Villa performance.

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Garde could lose Lescott to America’s MLS but indicated he feels there’s life yet in his 33 year old legs. “He can be a leader and at the moment he is doing that,” said Garde. “We have discovered the way we want to work. We had discussions about it.

“When I arrived at Arsenal as a player it was quite the same situation with the old and famous back four. When Arsene Wenger came everyone was thinking they are dead but actually no, they won the league one year later.

“In football, you have to have the right spirit. Lescott has the right attitude.”

Albion were booed off but 2,800 Villa fans stayed and applauded their team. Wycombe was the low point, players accused of not caring and substitutes playing stupid games on the bench, but something is stirring now. It might not just be another Great Escape. It might be a French Revolution.