Martin O'Neill: Aston Villa are playing to win the Carling Cup

Sep 24 2008 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill admits to being puzzled by the Premier League’s cool regard for the Carling Cup and says there should be no doubt that a strong Villa side will be going all-out to replicate his successes in the competition with Leicester City.

O’Neill led the Foxes to two victories in three finals out of four between 1997 and 2000 and cannot understand why certain top-flight clubs would rest players.

Both Fulham and West Ham were sent tumbling against lower-league opposition last night and O’Neill said: “I can understand the top sides prioritising it.

“They have the Premiership and the Champions League but those sides not involved in it, I am surprised.

“If your Premiership hopes are not breaking into European football but maybe in trying to stabilise yourself then cup competitions can only be helpful.

“This club has won the competition in the past and we’d really love to do it again.

“There is little point in us going into the competition without having a view of trying to progress.

“The eventual aim is to try to win it. We won it a couple of times at Leicester and it was always the aim.”

O’Neill, who took in last night’s Stoke v Reading Carling Cup tie – the second successive Royals game he has followed as he tracks striker Kevin Doyle – admits his side are badly in need of a cup run.

“We got through a few rounds in the League Cup in my first year before finally succumbing to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge when they played their full team,’’ he said.

“Then in the FA Cup there’s no doubt again we will draw Manchester United in the third round.

“We would like to progress, we don’t want to go out of it.

“It’s a competition I’ve won as a player and as a manager and that’s great but that’s old news now.

“We just want to go on and progress in it.”

O’Neill says he still feels a responsibility for what happened last year when his weakened team were defeated by Leicester.

“I am very disappointed with myself for last year and I want to try to put that right,’’ he said.

“Hindsight is a great old thing. I made some changes to the side and it didn’t work. We had an off night and we want to try to win this one.

“This will be a difficult game for us, no question about that.

“It’s a game we wouldn’t want to treat lightly but by the same token quite a number of players have played a lot of games.

“I will make a couple of changes but we still want to win the game mindful of what happened last year against Leicester.”