O’Neill issues Intertoto clash warning

Villa boss Martin O’Neill has warned his team not to “throw away” all of last season’s hard work in tomorrow’s Intertoto Cup clash with Odense BK.

O’Neill admits their opponent’s fitness levels will be better than Villa’s for the third-round first leg encounter and he expects a stern test from the
Danes.

He said: “We felt from the outset that it would probably be the Danish team that we’d play and that has proved to be the case. It will not be easy.

“They’ll be ahead of us in terms of fitness. We’ve had them watched in both games against TPS Turku so I’ve had reports and I’ve also got DVDs of the two games.

“They took the time to come and watch us at Zurich last weekend - Martin Laursen was telling me their assistant manager was there. Hopefully they
didn’t learn too much from that particular match.

“They’re up for the game and we’ve got to be ready for it. We worked so hard last year to get ourselves into this position, so there’s no point in
throwing it away at the first hurdle.

“I know the fans are excited about the prospect of European football and I share that excitement. I’m sure the players are also excited.”