Steve Sidwell has vowed to help bring the glory days back to Villa Park after insisting his injury setback has made him ‘hungrier than ever’ to succeed.
Sidwell and Carlos Cuellar will continue their comebacks from respective calf injuries by appearing for Villa’s reserves against Tottenham tonight.

If all goes well, both could feature against Juande Ramos’ men at White Hart Lane next Monday.

Watching from the sidelines has proved difficult for Sidwell, whose only appearances to date have come in the Intertoto Cup.

The £5.5m signing from Chelsea admits it has at least given him a chance to cast an eye over his new team-mates – and believes Martin O’Neill has assembled a side capable of challenging for silverware.

Sidwell said: “It’s been a frustrating way to start my Villa career but if anything it’s made me hungrier than ever to do well here.

“I’m a really bad watcher of games. Don’t get me wrong, I watch the games and obviously I want the boys to play well.

“I don’t like being up in the stands and it’s difficult. Watching the games has given me the chance to see just how good a side we are.

“We’ve made some great signings this summer and we have a lot more options now. What we’ve seen so far, for this stage of the season, is very good and very encouraging.

“I was the first signing of the summer and the new players coming in since have given the dressing room a real buzz.

“We’re all very optimistic and I feel we’re good enough to be competing up there this season.

“The quality of the players we’ve signed doesn’t surprise me. When I sat down and spoke to the manager and heard the way he and the chairman wanted to take the club, there was only one way that could be done.

“That was obviously dipping into the market and spending big. They’ve done that and now it’s just a matter of getting on with it.

“We knew we needed a bigger squad this season to do well at home and in Europe.

“The way things have panned out, we can reach heights that this club has done before.”