Europe disrupts start of Aston Villa's season

Jun 18 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

DAVID Murphy reckons Blues won’t find themselves out of their depth in the Premier League.

The left-back said the memory of relegation last time in the top flight would spur the players on, and Alex McLeish’s new additions should help strengthen their hand.

Two years ago Blues dropped into the Championship on 35 points, one less than 17th-placed Fulham, and a tally that would have been good enough for survival last season.

Murphy, who arrived from Hibernian in a £1.5 million deal in January, said: “Getting relegated was the biggest low of my career, as it was for a lot of the lads.

“I wouldn’t say we were a bad team, we came close to staying up but just didn’t do enough.

“Definitely we will learn from that and I don’t think we will be going in there next season worrying.

“We have got some very good players in the squad, there’s a lot of experience of the Premier League, and I think it will actually suit us more than the Championship did.

“The manager will have more targets to bring in and I’m sure they will be players who are going to help make us better.”

Blues face a tough assignment on the opening day at Manchester United. Yet these are the sort of