Aston Villa boss hopes pre-season planning does not unravel after 45 minutes

Aug 7 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill hopes Villa’s painstaking pre-season planning is not dented after just 45 minutes when the Premier League campaign kicks off against West Ham next weekend.

O’Neill was left questioning the claret and blues’ preparations a year ago when they disappointingly lost their opening league game to Wigan just weeks after winning the Peace Cup.

The Villa boss is still hurt that a small section of the Villa Park faithful chose to boo his team off at half-time in the 2-0 defeat – only three quarters of an hour into the new season.

But Villa bounced back to win their next four league games against Liverpool, Fulham, Blues and Portsmouth and lay the foundations for a successful season.

Even so, O’Neill is anxious to avoid a repeat performance of the Wigan woes – and their early Europa League exit to Rapid Vienna – this time around.

Villa kept faith with their late July/early August sunshine break by replicating last summer’s Peace Cup trip to Spain with the Guadiana Cup in Portugal.