Pre-Season: Walsall 1 Villa 2

Over the years going to Walsall for pre-season has become a bit of a tradition for both players and fans assosiated with Aston Villa so it was no real surprise when Villa filled two of Walsall’s stands and clearly outnumbered the home side.

Despite it being a friendly it was a Midlands derby and there was a police presence on the night but with both set’s of fans in very good behaviour, they wasn’t really needed.

To the game anyway, Villa picked a mostly youthful and reserve side with the exception of John Carew, James Collins and Brad Friedel. With the other big names including Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell and Curtis Davis.

James Collins was replaced almost as quickly as he ran onto the pitch at the start of the game with what looked like a pull, although later reports confirmed he was already suffering with a knock from the weekend game in Dublin.

It was a game that was dominated from start to finish from Villa as expected with a few flashes from Walsall and goals in each half from Andreas Weimann was enough to cancel out Alex Nicholls late goal for the Saddlers.

Just like last season I have been hearing a lot of glowing reports for a certain Marc Albrighton and he certainly ran the show last night as the winger terrified the Walsall defense.

Overall it was a good run out as it always is against a side that always want to get one over on Villa so we can head to Portugal with our heads held high, and I would only presume a lot of the senior guys will feature the weekend.