Shaun Maloney today pledged to “up his game” to meet the Premiership challenge as Villa fans rallied to the excitement of Martin O’Neill’s new signings.

The 24-year-old striker joined former Celtic teammates Stiliyan Petrov and Chris Sutton – and he is hoping to claim at least a spot on the bench for tomorrow’s Premiership home clash with West Ham.

Maloney is checking in at a time of high excitement around Villa Park as John Carew and Ashley Young prepare to take their home bows.

By early today Villa had already sold more than 37,000 tickets and the expected “walk-up” is likely to result in a 40,000 gate.

“I can’t wait to play at Villa Park,” says Maloney.

Read the full story in the Express & Star

Shaun Maloney today pledged to “up his game” to meet the Premiership challenge as Villa fans rallied to the excitement of Martin O’Neill’s new signings.

The 24-year-old striker joined former Celtic teammates Stiliyan Petrov and Chris Sutton – and he is hoping to claim at least a spot on the bench for tomorrow’s Premiership home clash with West Ham.

Maloney is checking in at a time of high excitement around Villa Park as John Carew and Ashley Young prepare to take their home bows.

By early today Villa had already sold more than 37,000 tickets and the expected “walk-up” is likely to result in a 40,000 gate.

“I can’t wait to play at Villa Park,” says Maloney.”The boys all speak highly of it. and hopefully I’ll be in the squad tomorrow.

“The Premiership is a quality league and I’m obviously going to have to raise the level of my own game. It’s exciting for me.

“I know there’s a lot of hard work to be done to get me up to that level and I’m more than willing to do it.

“I’m not sure how it will contrast with Scotland. No disrespect to the Scottish league, obviously it’s a challenge to win it every year with Celtic and if you don’t it’s a big disappointment.

“But I think the quality of opponent week in, week out in the Premiership will be a lot higher and as a player I think it’s a massive challenge.

“I need to improve as a player and adapt to that.

“I’m confident in my own abilities. The manager and the staff know what I can do and hopefully the fans will soon get the chance to see what I’m about.”

Maloney certainly has the faith of manager Martin O’Neill who says: “Shaun is an excellent player, and I think he is as conscientious as they come. He will be a big asset to this club.”

O’Neill is likely to stick with the team which played so well in defeat at Newcastle providing full-back Wilfred Bouma recovers from a knock.