Strikers John Carew and Ashley Young are at the centre of a high stakes clash of the new boys tomorrow.

The giant Norwegian and his quick-heeled young partner made a hugely impressive start to their Villa careers despite defeat at Newcastle on Wednesday.

And while Villa were suffering such a cruel scoreline, defender Matthew Upson was completing the most bitter and controversial move of the January transfer window from Birmingham City to West Ham.

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Strikers John Carew and Ashley Young are at the centre of a high stakes clash of the new boys tomorrow.

The giant Norwegian and his quick-heeled young partner made a hugely impressive start to their Villa careers despite defeat at Newcastle on Wednesday.

And while Villa were suffering such a cruel scoreline, defender Matthew Upson was completing the most bitter and controversial move of the January transfer window from Birmingham City to West Ham.The spotlight will be fierce tomorrow, then, as Upson makes his Hammers debut alongside Calum Davenport, another of the manager Alan Curbishley’s January recruits, against a Villa side whose strike force has been completely revamped by manager Martin O’Neill.

This week’s last minute signing of Shaun Maloney from Celtic tops up a department now fronted by Carew and Young and the pair will be hoping for similar form but a different outcome when they make their home debuts.

“I am happy to get the goal but disappointed that we didn’t get the three points because I felt that having got it back to 2-1 we could easily have gone on and won the game,” said Young.

“To find ourselves 2-0 down as early as we did was disappointing but we got ourselves back into the game and created loads of chances that we should have taken but didn’t.

“We showed a lot of character to come back into it. Having been at the club for the last few days I could tell that the lads have that character because of the team bond that there is. That’s why it is so disappointing not to get the three points.”

“John Carew hasn’t played for a while, but I thought we linked up well. And hopefully there is more to come.

“I thought he had scored the equaliser when he headed against the post.

“That was just one of the chances we created. I thought it was in and we were even starting to celebrate.

“Near the end we were pushing on and they got a breakaway and that’s where the third goal came from.

“But I’m definitely encouraged by tonight and even from my first few days in training, I’ve seen the boys like to get the ball down and pass. They like to create chances and I want to be a part of that.”

And the stakes will be high alright. Villa are nine points distant from the bottom three. A win would have them looking up confidently towards a top six finish the players believe is still possible; defeat would suck them far too close for comfort to the survival dogfight.

Villa have only one win in the last 14 games but O’Neill says: “Saturday is a big game for us, and remarkably we will go into it with a lot of confidence.

“The supporters who travelled to Newcastle will have been really pleased with the way we performed.

“It was very encouraging. Now we have to take that level of performance into this game – and if we can do that we hope to get our just rewards.”

The prospect of O’Neill having his veteran Chris Sutton available as back up for Carew is waning though.

Sutton is still suffering blurred vision in one eye as a result of concussion and is today expected to hear the specialist’s verdict on his prospects of playing again this season.

By Martin Swain