The Villa Times 12/10/05

Baros is hoping to be fit for the Czech Republic’s World Cup qualifier v Finland tonight. He is currently suffering from an Achilles injury. ‘I cannot say anything for certain, it was painful when I tried to train…I still have a whole day to try to recover though.’ I would rather he concentrated on being fit for us on Sunday! His Czech doctor has said ‘Right now, it’s looking more as though he won’t play.’

Phillips on the other hand could be fit having missed the last four games with a calf injury. He played a training match at Bodymoor Heath Tuesday morning and says ‘Hopefully I’ll be 100% fit. I’ve got a good record in derbies. I scored the winner for Southampton against Portsmouth last season and I’ve scored the winner for Sunderland against Newcastle a couple of times, so hopefully I can do the same at St Andrews.’ Right, time for you readers to take action. Buy a prayer matt, and bloody well stay on it until Sunday!

Aaron Hughes has an ‘outside chance’ of being fit but he has said he won’t be rushed back from his hernia operation if it means he could end up out of action longer. McCann, Delaney and Hendrie have all be ruled out.

Gary Cahill has been linked to Leeds.

Villa and England Under-21 international defender Liam Ridgewell has signed a 3 year contract. He says the youth academy has proved it can produce first team talent: ‘When you look at it, there’s three of us from that side currently playing for the first team at Villa. That’s not a bad strike rate is it? Myself, Davo and Luke Moore are all playing, while Peter Whittingham has also played for the first team this season. Other players from that crop are also earning a living in football – look at James O’Connor and Stephen Cooke at Bournemouth, Stefan Moore at QPR and Wayne Henderson on loan with Brighton.’

Northern Ireland manager Sanchez says 20 year old midfielder Steven Davis is more than capable of becoming the next Frank Lampard. Davis, who has scored four goals for Villa, scored his first international goal at the weekend (v Wales) He says that now he has added goals to his game, he has a great future. ‘I told Steve when he came into the team that good midfield players -and there are a lot in the Premiership – can score goals.’

Loads of Villa players in International action today. Angel for Colombia v Paraguay. Sorensen for Denmark v Kazakhstan. Mellberg for Sweden v Iceland and Davis for Northern Ireland v Austria.

Aston Villa’s AGM is on Friday at 11.30am. Nice timing before the Small Heath derby eh?! Cynical, me? Never.

Thought for the day: ‘Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.’