O’Leary: Just Another Pre-Season Game

The Villa boss flies to Ireland with a 23-man squad as he looks to put the finishing touches to preparations for next week’s Premiership opener against Portsmouth.

And, while the media spotlight will be on the Tolka Park clash with us, O’Leary is far more concerned with his new team for August 16.

He told the official Villa website: "I had some good times at Leeds and the fans were always superb to me, but it’s not as if I just left Leeds and came straight to Villa. So that’s all in the past for me.

"To some people this might be about David O’Leary against Leeds, but for me it’s about preparing Aston Villa for the first game of the season.

"I suppose I’ll feel a bit different ahead of the first trip to Elland Road, but as far as I’m concerned this is just another pre-season game and what matters is that we step-up our preparations.

"It’s about stepping up the tempo. We’ve got a bigger game against Leeds. Hopefully we won’t pick-up any injuries and then we have a week to finish off the preparations.

"We’ve got two games in two days, so we’re taking two teams to make sure that nobody overdoes it with the new season just a week away."

Leeds Squad: Robinson, Martyn, Smith, Duberry, Harte, Radebe, Camara, Woods, Seth Johnson, Morris, Barmby, Mills, Wilcox, Kelly, McPhail, McMaster, Domi, Lennon, Matteo, Milner.

Villa Squad: Postma, Enckelman, Delaney, Johnsen, Mellberg, Alpay, Samuel, Staunton, Whittingham, Barry, Hadji, McCann, Hendrie, Hitzlsperger, Kinsella, Kachloul, de la Cruz, Angel, Dublin, Allback, Crouch, Davis, Jackman.