Martin O'Neill: Trip is all about getting fit

Jul 8 2008

MARTIN O’Neill says results on the club’s two-game pre-season training camp in Switzerland will be meaningless as he plots the build-up to the club’s entry into the InterToto Cup.

The Villa boss is also set to name a number of youngsters on the travelling party, which left for Zurich today, and he says they have earned their call-ups on merit.

Villa play FC Wil on Thursday and FC Zurich on Saturday and O’Neill said: “I’m not at all worried about the results in Switzerland. It’s about trying to get into a pattern of play again and get a bit of match fitness.

“This trip is all about stepping up our preparations for the return to competitive football.

“The second game against FC Zurich will be a decent enough test but essentially I see the games as extensions of the training sessions.

“We’re building up and trying to get ourselves ready for the Intertoto Cup the following week.

“That’s why we’ve thrown in the game on the Thursday night as well.”

Ciaran Clark is unavailable for the trip as he is with the England Under-19s and Shane Lowry has picked up a knock but the likes of Nathan Delfouneso, Barry Bannan, Elliott Parish, Marc Albrighton and Zoltan Stieber are likely to come in.

O’Neill said: “We are taking some young lads out there and that would always have been the case, whether our squad was up to full strength or not.

“I would have brought them through regardless – if we’d had 26 players I’d still have brought two or three of them with us.

“I did that last season and I’d do that every single time.