Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood believes that his players need to "man up" for tonight's clash against Queens Park Rangers on home turf.

Sherwood has dubbed the fixture as the "biggest game of the season" for Villa as they try to steer themselves away from the relegation zone in the Premier League.

Ahead of the match, Sherwood has urged his team to be tougher, similar to the "mentality" of QPR's crop of players.

"This is without doubt the biggest game of the season for Villa and possibly one of the biggest in a number of years," The Independent quotes Sherwood as saying.

"If you look through QPR's squad they have a lot of players who are men with a lot of experience in there. I think we have a few men in there but we have a lot of players who are pretty much icing-on-the-cake players.

"I am trying to get that mentality into them to start digging out results, which is not what we're cut out to do."

Villa are two points above relegation, while QPR are three points from safety.