The Villa Times 23/10/2006

Sky Sports, amongst others, have been reporting that Martin O'Neill might make a short term move for Celtic legend Henrik Larsson. The Swede left Barcelona in the summer having helped them to a Champions League final win and joined Helsingobrgs where he said he wanted to finish his career, however O'Neill thinks the 35-year-old could still cut it at the top level. Click Here

Stats from the game v Fulham: Click Here

Shame about the dramatic drop in attendance, just 30 919 watched the weekends game, thought we'd be getting 36 000 and more this season with new owners and Martin O'Neill in place. I guess with it being a silly 5.15pm kick off and on tv accounted for some of the drop.

Stiliyan Petrov has admitted Villa were 'a little bit sloppy' and against Fulham in the disappointing 1-1 draw saying the team 'didn't close Fulham down quick enough'

Villa have been linked to Bolton's striker Kevin Davis who is out of contract in the summer and has yet to agree a new deal at the Reebok Stadium. Hmmm, no thanks, he doesn't score!

Juan Pablo Angel has backed Milan Baros to bounce back from his slump on fitness and form. 'Milan is a quality player. I didn't think this was a particular good day for the strikers. We have to really work hard but we didn't have that many chances and it was one of those times. I am sure when he starts to score goals he will show how important he is for us and we need him at his best because he is a quality player as he has shown it before. Things will come right.'

Vital Villa asked what we would do against Fulham. 86% got it wrong saying we would win. 12% were bang on the money with a draw and 2% can sod off as they said we'd lose!!! (Note to self, don't tell readers of your own site to sod off).

Gareth Barry is hoping to force his way into the England squad now Sven has gone. He told the Daily Express: 'It's one man's opinion so what can you do? But I do feel I have a half chance now. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest the extra bit of pressure that's going on at the moment. I hope Steve McClaren will judge me on what I am doing." McClaren was at Villa on Saturday watching Barry.

Martin O'Neill has refused to criticise the players for the dull 1-1 draw on Saturday: 'Well we still remain unbeaten, so that's to our credit. If you'd mentioned that to me that we'd be going nine games into The Premiership unbeaten then I would have taken it, obviously. The blip that you talk about is I think it was just the fact that we played pretty poorly on Saturday. The lack of opportunities we created during the course of the game made it a poor performance from us.'

Gavin McCann will face a late fitness test ahead of the cup clash against Leicester tomorrow night. Team from: Sorensen, Taylor, Hughes, Mellberg, Laursen. Ridgewell, Agbonlahor, Davis, Petrov, Barry, Angel, Baros, Osbourne, Agathe, Sutton, Bouma, McCann.

Villa have announced the half season tickets are on sale and if you buy before December 15th you get a free ticket for the Bolton game on the 16th. Click Here

Thought for the day: Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.