Martin O'Neill looking at steady approach to Villa season build-up

Jul 11 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill hopes Villa will reap the rewards from more gradual pre-season preparations this summer after being rushed into action a year ago.

Villa were forced to kick-off their 2008-09 campaign as early as July 19 last year when they travelled to Odense, in Denmark, for the Intertoto Cup.

But their first competitive fixture this time around is not until the first afternoon of the Premier League when they host Wigan on Saturday, August 15.

And O’Neill is hoping the extra month’s build up including three English-based friendlies and the Peace Cup in Spain will allow a more steady approach.

Asked about last summer’s preparations in comparison to this year’s, O’Neill, whose players returned to training on Thursday, said: “There are some good points and some poor points about it.

“With one you get into competitive mode very quickly, but with the other one you can have a gradual build up.

“We’ve got a couple of pre-season games coming up relatively quickly and then we go to Spain for the Peace Cup so that’s interesting.

“It’s very competitive as well, but it does give us a more gradual build-up to the season rather than being thrown in at the deep end.

“The Peace Cup itself is full of teams that have fantastic quality. Porto, Real Madrid, Juventus, teams like that.”