MARTIN O’NEILL has attacked John Terry for making a “pretty idle comment” after the England international claimed that Chelsea knew Aston Villa’s players would run out of energy in the final half-hour of last Saturday’s mauling at Stamford Bridge.

Terry, who made the observation after Chelsea had thumped Villa 7-1, implied that O’Neill’s side suffer from fatigue and have a habit of fading in matches.

“We knew Villa would tire after 55-60 minutes and that if we kept passing the ball, spaces would appear and chances would come,” the Chelsea captain said.

The remark has gone down badly at Villa and has upset O’Neill in particular, who strongly disputed Terry’s suggestion and pointed to recent performances as well as statistics gathered from the match analyst system that the club use as evidence that his players are among the fittest in the Premier League.

“The truth is that it doesn’t stand up,” O’Neill said. “In the previous game against Sunderland we were pressing. And we scored in the 82nd minute against Wolves [in the 2-2 draw the game before]. It just doesn’t stack up. My own view is that it’s a pretty idle comment. It’s the sort of comment you can make when you have won a game pretty convincingly.”

The rout at Chelsea should provide Villa with plenty of motivation ahead of the semi-final between the two clubs at Wembley a week today and it also seems inevitable that Terry’s comments will be pinned up.

“You’d hope that sort of comment wouldn’t come back to haunt him,” O’Neill added.

“I don’t accept it. If people are interested in statistics – and you can prove anything you want with them – there’s only one major consideration and that’s the result. That’s what you are judged on. If you are looking at the stats, we do them all the time. Interestingly, we are one of the fittest sides in the Premier League.”

Villa travel to Bolton Wanderers this afternoon looking to bury the memory of their heaviest top-flight defeat since 1986 and keep alive their faint hopes of finishing in the top four.

“I will lift the players [at Bolton] because that is my job,” said O’Neill. “That is what I have been doing since I’ve been in management . . . I cannot guarantee we will win the game, but I can guarantee that the team will be very positive.”

O’Neill, meanwhile, admits it would be no surprise if the Premier League “top clubs” showed an interest in Aston Villa midfielder James Milner. But he insists there was no bust-up with chairman-owner Randy Lerner over unfounded reports that Milner was to be sold to Manchester United.

And, while there has been speculation over his own future, O’Neill is also adamant that Lerner is not set to quit the midlands club.

O’Neill said: “There was a story that I had fallen out with the chairman because of a supposedly imminent transfer of James Milner to Manchester United.

“He has been splendid for us this season but there is not one ounce of truth in the story. It is ludicrous.”