Maloney Promises Goals

Villa’s new boy Shaun Maloney scored for Scotland in a 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands and promised there was more to come!

Maloney, who joined Villa from Celtic in January, scored from a free kick and after the game he said:

‘It was great to score my first Scotland goal and, to be honest, there was a bit of pressure on us before the game. I was pretty confident with it. The keeper gave me a decent chance and I knew that if I could get it up and over the wall then it should be a goal. I thought I hit it all right and as soon as I saw it go over the wall I knew it was in.’

Adding on next season with Villa:

‘I haven’t really settled yet. I got a run of games at the start but didn’t play particularly well. It has been a big change in lifestyle for me. Off the park I was really happy in Glasgow so it’s difficult to adjust to a new city. But I want to play more games for Villa and for Scotland as well. I’ve not settled yet and I hope I’ll play a lot more next season. We’ll wait and see.’

His former Celtic coach Tommy Burns says:

‘Shaun is a free-kick specialist and players like that are very valuable, but the big thing for him is he wants to become a valuable player for what he does on the field as well as just taking free-kicks.’

Can’t remember the last time we had a free-kick specialist? Alan Thompson had a mean old free kick on him at times but … ?

Burns added he wished he’d not left Celtic: ‘You have mixed feelings for him because he came in here and got into the first team and wins player of the year awards and then the next thing he is away. So there is definitely happiness for him to have done well for Scotland, but disappointment with the fact that he has moved on. Shaun came in at 16 and only had one year in the academy before he started to train with the first team.’