Villa conclude their pre-season with a trip to take on fallen East Midland giants Nottingham Forest. It’s the second time we have played Nottingham Forest away in pre-season in recent times after making the trip there before Paul Lambert’s debut campaign although the 3-1 defeat is best forgotten. So far, pre-season has proved unkind to Villa with only 1 win having been picked up so far at Swindon whilst their having been frustrating draws against local rivals Walsall and Wolves.
This final fixture before the season gives off proper next weekend with a trip to nearly promoted Bournemouth offers a chance to try and give minutes to recent new signings such as Rudy Gestede who recently signed from Blackburn and Jordan Veretout who signed from Nantes. Other summer signings including Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Ayew and Jordan Amavi will also be looking to cement their spots in the team ahead of the opening day.
Furthermore, players who featured last season or not in the case of Libor Kozak who has performed well this season with a spectacular opening goal in the recent game against Wolves showing how far he has come after not featuring for the first team since December 2013. Recent stalwarts such as Ashley Westwood, Ciaran Clark, Alan Hutton and Leandro Bacuna will also be hoping to make an impression to show they deserve to start ahead of Tim Sherwood’s recent acquisitions. Jack Grealish will also be hopeful of getting some minutes under his belt after picking up a niggling injury in pre-season, although a recent run out for the U-21 team hopefully shows he’s on the right track.
Today’s opponents Notts Forest will be hoping that today’s fixture can provide a springboard for them to get their Championship campaign off to a flyer when it kicks off next week. Last season’s great start to the season under club legend Stuart Pearce soon fizzled out and he was replaced by Dougie Freedman with any hopes of promotion soon fizzling out and they ended up with a mid table finish. Upfront, Britt Asombalonga is out injured till January and will be a real miss.
Nottingham Forest’s pre-season has also only yielded 1 win, away to Stevenage although a recent 1-1 draw against Swansea at home shows that they are more than capable of giving Premier League sides a run for their money.
Will Villa be able to use their final pre-season game to provide a springboard into the new season or will Tim Sherwood have to go back to the drawing board if we suffer a poor result here?
