Agbonlahor fired Aston Villa to a 2-0 victory at Craven Cottage with two predatory finishes that have thrust his name into contention for England's World Cup squad.

The double ended a goal drought that had seen him fail to score since Manchester United on December 12 and lifted his total for the season to 12.

The 23-year-old won the last of his three England caps against Belarus last October and while O'Neill stopped short of recommending him to Fabio Capello, he is delighted by his form.

"This will be a major confidence booster for him in that he'll know he can score those types of goals," said O'Neill.

"The second goal came because he'd already scored the first and the confidence had been restored.

"I was delighted with him, but then I was delighted with him when we drew with Arsenal in midweek.

"He was terrific against Arsenal but didn't get the goal he deserved.

"His recent lack of league goals never affected his confidence. He knows how important he is to us.

"He gets enough confidence from knowing the team and myself are delighted with him.

"At least England were represented at Craven Cottage and they will have seen his performance first hand."

Agbonlahor took advantage of defensive errors from Chris Smalling and Brede Hangeland to end Villa's four-match winless streak, a run that also saw them fail to score.

He outjumped the dithering Smalling, who will leave for Old Trafford at the end of the season, to nod home the first and left Hangeland for dead before rifling home the second.

"Gaby gets his body in front and holds the ball up very well. He's been improving on that for the three years I've known him," said O'Neill.

"Like all centre forwards he wants to score more goals. Now he realises he's got the strength and ability to step in front of people and hold the ball up."

The victory has thrust Villa back into contention for fourth place but O'Neill suspects his rivals for the position may be better placed to win the race.

"Tottenham are a very fine side. Manchester City are there and you wouldn't count Liverpool out of it," he said.

"Those sides are stronger than us in terms off strength in depth and that would be my concern. But my group of players is excellent."

A fifth successive defeat continued Fulham's freefall down the Premier League with boss Roy Hodgson struggling to come to terms with a lengthy injury list.

The Cottagers' forward and full-back resources have been savaged by injuries to Clint Dempsey, Andy Johnson, Paul Konchesky and John Pantsil, while Bobby Zamora is playing despite being troubled by a shoulder injury.

"A run of results like this happened at the start of my career at Fulham," said Hodgson.

"Unless you're at one of the big clubs you have to accept you'll go through a bad period.

"We just have to keep going. Three points makes such a big difference in this league and I believe we have the capacity to get results.

"We're lacking that little bit of quality that we've normally had and we must put that down to our injury problems at full-back and centre forward."

Hodgson refuses to condemn 20-year-old centre back Smalling, who this week agreed a £7million move to Manchester United, for the opener.

"I thought he was favourite on the cross but Agbonlahor was very clever to nudge him and get to it first. He'll learn from that," he said.

"His positional play was good, as was his composure. The problem was in the wider areas where we don't have the quality to keep our attacks going."