Another Three Goals For Villa

Villa ended their pre-season trip to North America with a 3-1 win over Columbus.

Ashley Young, Gareth Barry and Luke Moore were the scorers and Martin O’Neill said: ‘We’re starting to look a real threat going forward.’

VILLA: Taylor, Cahill, Barry, Bouma, Young, Reo-Coker, Laursen, Maloney, Agbonlahor, Mellberg, Carew. Subs: O’Halloran (replaced Bouma half time), Osbourne (replaced Agbonlahor 72), Ridgewell (replaced Laursen half time), Gardner (replaced Barry half time), Petrov (replaced Reo-Coker half time), Berger (replaced Young half time), Stieber, Moore (replaced Carew half time), Harewood (replaced Maloney 57).

Having scored 4 the previous game v Toronto (3 for Luke Moore) Martin O’Neill continued: ‘The attacking play has been very good. We were very strong again tonight in the first-half. I made a few changes at half-time and the lads took a little bit of time to settle in the second-half. But I’ve been very, very pleased. We look as if we’re capable of scoring goals. We need to sort a few things out defensively and we’ll try and work on that as best we can between now and the Liverpool game.’

Adding on the official site: ‘The three goals tonight were all quality goals, but I think we’re capable of that. I think the players have got a lot of confidence from the back end of the season when we played some great stuff. We’ve carried it on here in these games and we definitely look a threat. Now, when we haven’t got the ball, we might just have to work a wee bit harder to get it. But, considering our state of fitness before we came out here, I’m very pleased.’