Big Bulgarian welcome for Aston Villa

Sep 17 2008 by Mark Woodward, Birmingham Mail

VILLA’S multi-million-pound squad were mobbed by football-mad Bulgarians today when they arrived at the Litex Lovech stadium for training ahead of their latest UEFA Cup adventure.

The 15,000-seater ground has been likened to Cambridge United’s Abbey Stadium and yet a huge crowd converged to see the likes of Gareth Barry, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor take a run-out.

The team flew into Goran Airport last night and were mobbed by Bulgarian supporters and the local media, who are thrilled to have such a high-profile club visiting them for the first-round clash tomorrow.

Among the fans at the airport was a Bulgarian man in a Villa shirt, who had cycled a round trip of more than 30 miles just to catch a glimpse of his heroes.

Manager Martin O’Neill and his team later boarded coaches for the team hotel, the Presidium Palace in Lovech – a two-hour drive under police escort.

But even then the journey was hampered by huge electrical storms, which caused power cuts, and heavy rain throughout the night.

Nigel Reo-Coker, who scored Villa’s opening goal in their impressive 2-1 victory over Tottenham on Monday night, said: “It is great we have the away leg first.

‘‘It gives us the chance to maybe get an away goal or two and then bring the team back to Villa Park where hopefully we can get something and make it through to the next stage.”