Martin O'Neill: Aston Villa are up for Carling Cup
MARTIN O’Neill says every member of his cock-a-hoop squad are bursting to face QPR in the Carling Cup tomorrow – but he will have to do without James Milner.
Villa face Iain Dowie’s side at Villa Park with a cup run firmly on their minds after last season’s embarassment at the hands of Leicester.
O’Neill says they will treat the Londoners with the upmost respect and will play with a “phenomenal determination”.
“We will treat the games properly and give them the respect they deserve,’’ he said.
“The game tomorrow will be colossal for us –a big game to try and win.
“We will certainly make a few changes in the side while reminding ourselves of what happened last year.
“We want to win, it is really important for us. We will make changes but there should be a phenomenal determination about us to win this game,” he said.
O’Neill is ready to bring in a number of his fringe players with Zat Knight, Marlon Harewood, Moustapha Salifou, Brad Guzan, Craig Gardner and Carlos Cuellar all pushing for starts.
Stiliyan Petrov and John Carew are both likely to be rested after limping out of the final minutes at Albion.
“Everybody in the squad will want to play, everybody will want to go and make their own mark and I think that’s really important,’’ said O’Neill.
“We have some players here who are just dying to get playing.
“The unfortunate thing for us is that James Milner is cup-tied because he played for Newcastle against Coventry.
“He is dying to get in the side but the players in there have been playing so well. His time will come.
“Zat Knight has done really well for the reserves in the last two games. I want everybody to be able to step into the Premier League and not be able to use the fitness element as an excuse.”
The game marks the first of three matches at home for Villa which will see them face Sunderland and Litex Lovech after three successive wins on the road.
O’Neill is looking forward to playing at Villa Park for the first time since the last day of August.
“I’m not particularly sure it makes things easier but I’m obviously delighted because there will be less travelling,’’ he said.
The game is a repeat of the League Cup clash almost four years ago to the day when Darius Vassell, Juan Pablo Angel and Nobby Solano gave Villa a comfortable 3-1 home win.
The two teams are certainly no strangers in the League Cup.
Andy Towsend scored the only goal at Villa Park in the fourth round of the competition in November 1995.
Rangers dumped Villa out at the third-round stage by a single goal when the teams met in October 1984 at Loftus Road. An Andy Gray penalty gave Villa a 1-0 win in the third round in October 1977, and the teams fought out a thrilling semi-final tie in February 1977 which went to a second replay at Highbury won courtesy of a Brian Little hat-trick.
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