Villa were on the crest of a wave after demolishing Norwich 4-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup and then triumphing 3-1 over Liverpool at Anfield.

But losing 8-0 at Chelsea and 4-0 at home to Tottenham has sucked Villa backed to the fringes of the Barclays Premier League relegation battle ahead of tomorrow’s home clash with Wigan.

Villa manager Lambert has always attempted to stay level headed through the highs and lows of a transitional period and his faith in himself is undiminished.

He said: “I’ve always got the belief I’m right and I won’t change. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

“I’ve got to have belief in myself. As I’ve said before we’re only a few points away from mid-table.

“We’re not a million miles away. You go on a couple of runs…I try not to be too downbeat.

Lambert admits his successful spell as a player in Germany with Borussia Dortmund, with whom he won the Champions League, taught him not to outwardly show much emotion – win, lose or draw.

He said: “I’m a realist. I’m not going to sit here and bluff you or anything like that. I know what has happened.

“Don’t get me wrong, don’t think that it (defeat) doesn’t hurt because of the way I act, because it does. I just maybe don’t show it.

“It’s the same way as if we win. People might think that I will be elated. But since I’ve played in Germany I’ve always had the mentality where I don’t show much emotion.

“That changed my whole way of thinking, being there. That was me as a player. I played with guys that had won everything in football, World Cups, European Cups and every title under the sun.

“If it was good enough for them, then I thought it’s good enough for myself because I was nowhere near as good as they were. My mentality had to change.

“When I was taking my coaching badges over there, you get taught how to handle different situations, you get taught different things.

“You just try to pick up as much information as you can to handle different situations.”

Lambert is confident his young side, with an average age of less than 24, will respond in the right manner against the Latics.

He said: “It’s not difficult to pick up the players despite what a lot of people on the outside might think. That comes from within their character as well.

“My job is to pick them up and that’s what we’ll try and do, let them have that freedom to go and play the game.

“Going by their character, I don’t think picking them up will be a problem.

“One thing I can say is they’ll give it everything they’ve got. I don’t think it’s a team where we’ll just go there and be frightened by it.

“We’ll meet it full on, I’m pretty sure that’s what they’ll do. They’ll get there and give it a right good go.

“You pick them up, you have to. Nobody likes to get beat, whether it’s 8-0 or 1-0, 2-0, nobody wants to get beat.

“That’s football all over, you want to try and rectify it and try and win the next game.”