Walsall boss in Villa pledge

Walsall boss Jimmy Mullen has promised to give a Banks’s Stadium bow to some of his new faces in tomorrow night’s friendly with Villa.

Supporters will get a first glimpse of at least some – if not all – of Mullen’s quartet of new arrivals Sofiene Zaaboub, Dwayne Mattis, Steve Roberts and Jabo Ibehre, in what is the Saddlers’ first home friendly of the season.

Mullen may also use the game to give some of his trialists another chance to impress. He expects Martin O’Neill’s side to give them the sort of challenge which will stand them in good stead for their League One curtain-raiser against Yeovil two weeks on Saturday.

He said: “It’s another step forward in our preparations. Everything is geared towards getting us ready for the first game of the season at Yeovil Town on August 9.

“This is a big game for the supporters. The Aston Villa squad is packed full of quality and they will provide us with an extremely stern test.

“There will be some new faces on show and everyone is looking forward to the game.”

Saddlers chairman Jeff Bonser admits he would not be disappointed to hear of Villa making further acquisitions before tomorrow evening, as it would be sure to add to the friendly’s box-office appeal. So far Steve Sidwell remains their only confirmed signing.

He said: “Hopefully there might be another couple of players in before tomorrow. Traditionally, we have played the Villa as a pre-season friendly virtually ever since we have owned the stadium, because we allow them to play a few reserve-team games there over the winter.

“We have three excellent friendlies this year against Villa, Birmingham and Albion. We would expect to get 6,000-7,000 there for each game.

“I think we will get a good crowd, certainly with Albion, as they have just gone up and last time we played Birmingham we got 6,000-7,000.

“They are all very good income earners for the club.”

Kick-off is at 7.45 with tickets priced at £12 for adults and £6 for concessions.