Luke Young insists Aston Villa's top-four placing in the Barclays Premier League is "no fluke".
The defender is adamant the league table "doesn't lie", as Martin O'Neill's side sustain their challenge for a Champions League spot.
Young believes the threat of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young is putting the frighteners on opposition teams and causing them to adopt a safety-first approach in matches at Villa Park.
Young said: "It is exciting times. In the squad, we are not getting too carried away - because there is such a long, long way to go in the season still.
"But at the minute, the league table doesn't lie. We are fourth, having a real good go - and we are winning games.
"I knew when I came here in the summer (from Middlesbrough) that I was going to be involved in a squad of players that had a chance of having a right good go in the league.
"But I didn't expect us to be where we are at the minute. We have given ourselves a great platform, and the challenge is 'can we carry it on for the rest of the season?"'
Young and Co are up against bottom club West Brom this weekend, and he is confident they will continue to prove their staying power.
"The fact we have stayed where we are for half-a-season proves it is not a fluke. We have lost games and bounced back. It is not as if we have ever gone on a massive run of bad form.
"We have always bounced back and picked up a win here or there to stop the rot a bit.
"But it is for other people to give out the compliments. Can we continue it? We will see. We will have a right good go at it."
Young believes his namesake Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor have the precious knack of being able to win games for Villa even when the team is not firing on all cylinders.
He said: "At the minute, even if we are not playing well, we can have a 10-minute spell where we can score a couple of goals and put games to bed with the way Ash, Gabby and James (Milner) are breaking.
"Sometimes it frightens teams, and perhaps that is why some of them are coming to Villa Park and playing defensively. We have got players teams are wary of.
"We've got the lads up front that make life easy for you as a defender. If you are doing your job at the back, you know you are going to score goals."
