Aston Villa will give Petrov a rest

BIRMINGHAM, England -- Stilyan Petrov faces a spell out of the Aston Villa first team squad as manager Martin O'Neill tries to find a way to revive the Bulgarian's waning confidence.

Petrov was taken off at half-time during Villa's game with Newcastle and O'Neill left him out of the squad for Sunday's match at Reading.

Petrov moved to Villa in a £6 million ($11.8 million) from Celtic 18 months ago but has struggled to establish himself.

O'Neill said: "I've decided to take Stilyan out of the firing line at this minute to get his confidence back.

"To be fair, we've played him out of position because he can go and play off the center forward. At the moment, he's not involved, but he's got a great determination about him. I know him very well and he's very strong mentally.

"He knows himself that he's capable of so much more when his confidence is high. His confidence is a bit low at the moment but he'll bounce back. I've got no doubts about it.

"I've seen him in games where he might lay the ball off whereas before, when full of confidence, he would thrust forward with the ball. Those things will come back." E-mail to a friend