Shaun Maloney tells Aston Villa: I'm ready for the call

Jul 23 2008 By Bill Howell

TWO goal Shaun Maloney today warned Villa their InterToto mission against Odense is far from over.

The Scotland international scored a fine free-kick and then a tap-in in last night’s 3-2 win at Walsall – with want-away Gareth Barry surprisingly included in the Villa squad.

Much speculation still rests over Maloney’s future, with Celtic keen to take him back to Parkhead, but he is concentrating on kicking off the season with Villa.

And he wants a starting role aginst the Danes on Saturday.

“Fingers crossed I can play a part against Odense,’’ he said.

“The boys played pretty well in patches in Odense so I think it will be difficult to break into the starting line-up for the second leg. But I’ve done all I can so hopefully the manager knows I’m ready if the call comes.

‘‘Saturday is a great opportunity to move closer to the UEFA Cup but at the same time we can’t afford to be complacent.

‘‘I think we saw in patches over in Denmark that they’re a decent team.

“They’re not bad going forward and they’ve got a goal threat. I think we have to be wary of them but with the quality we’ve got, hopefully we’ve got enough.

‘‘It was said to us before last weekend’s game that, even though it’s InterToto, that’s what we worked all last season for.

‘‘We were unfortunate to finish sixth and not qualify automatically for the UEFA Cup but we’ve still got the chance and it’s a massive incentive.”

Maloney was delighted with the performance shown by a very young Villa side last night at Walsall, where Nathan Baker and Nathan Delfouneso were the stars.

He said: “It was a pretty decent run out for us. They played some decent stuff as well and tried to have a go at playing some decent football.

‘‘We were a little bit disappointed to be going in 1-0 down at half-time because we created quite a few chances in the first-half.

‘‘But thankfully in the second-half we turned it round. So it was a good 90 minutes to get under our belts.

‘‘That was my second free-kick in pre-season but hopefully I won’t use them all up in friendlies. Hopefully I’ll score a few in the League or maybe even this weekend.

‘‘For my second goal it was a good shot from Moustapha Salifou. We know he can hit them. I just gambled on the follow-up and luckily it bounced right for me.

‘‘The winner was a great goal from Wayne Routledge. Zoltan Stieber put in a great ball as he made a good run from left-back and I always fancied Wayne to put it away. It was a good finish.

‘‘We haven’t had the best of performances or results in recent pre-season games.

“It was a young team last night but it was stressed before the game and at half-time that although it was a run-out for the fitness, winning is a big part of it. Thankfully we did that.”