Villa defender Stephen Warnock finds himself returning to Blackburn less than a month after leaving and is desperate to finally finish on the winning side.

The £7m summer signing from Ewood Park admits he couldn’t resist the chance to join the claret and blue revolution Martin O’Neill is currently presiding over, after experiencing the Villa juggernaut first hand.

In his five appearances for Rovers against Villa, he has picked up just a point.

Warnock admits the way Villa dismantled Rovers with their slick counter-attacking football in last season’s 2-0 win in the north-west was at the back of his mind when he agreed to make the move to the Midlands.

He said: “It was one of the reasons for coming here. Villa are such an exciting team, so I know we can go to places, get results and start climbing the league.

“I remember the game last year and I think they were the only team that beat us at Ewood when Sam Allardyce was in charge. They thoroughly deserved it on the day.

“We were all sat in the changing rooms afterwards and said actually we did deserve to lose, because they were the better team. They attacked quickly and defended well and we couldn’t cope with it.

“It’s exciting to be part of it. Hopefully I’ll have licence to get forward. I like doing that. But there’s going to be times when you pick and choose when you can and can’t go.

“I still need to learn that, probably, but the thing with playing at Blackburn was there’d be games when I was playing centre midfield or left midfield, so it was just learning where I’d be playing and getting used to that as well.”

But the Villa new boy admits he will be “forever grateful” to Rovers for rescuing his career after struggling to establish himself at Liverpool.

Now Warnock has his fingers crossed for a warm welcome from the Lancashire locals.

He said: “It’s one of the games I looked for straightaway to see when we’d be playing against them. I’m surprised that it’s come round so quick, but I’m looking forward to going back there.

“I’m not too sure what kind of reception former players normally get there. I think they’re usually quite good. Hopefully I’ll get a good reception, but you just never know.

“There’s no bad feeling. I’ve spoken to the chairman and the manager after I signed here and everything was left on good terms. There was a good understanding between us.

“I remember when I was at Liverpool I always felt I was good enough to play in the league, but that didn’t work out for me.

“It was Craig Bellamy who was at Liverpool, and had just left Blackburn, he told me how much of a great set-up and a good club it was.

“He helped me decide to go there. It’s a great club and they gave me the chance to move on and get my career back on track, so I’m forever grateful to them.”

Warnock and Roque Santa Cruz were two of the big name departures from Ewood during the summer but – with the likes of Benni McCarthy, David Dunn and Morten Gamst Pedersen still on their books – the England international has warned Rovers have more than enough to trouble Villa.

He said: “I think they’ve got good quality in the team. They’ve signed quite a lot of new players this year and I think it needs a little bit of time for them to gel and to get used to the speed of the English game.

“The way they play is tough to play against. They play a lot of percentage football and it’s very difficult to deal with but they’ve got a lot of quality in the team so they can mix their game up. I think they’ll have a good season.

“They’ve got to start doing things differently financially and I think it will be a test of the manager’s ability. But you only have to look at Sam’s days at Bolton to know that he can go and pick a player out for virtually nothing and turn him into a superstar. He’s got that ability.”

Warnock admits his £7million price tag was inflated in the current market, but insists he can cope with the pressure of his transfer fee.

He continued: “I think the transfer market’s gone a bit mad and people who are getting bought now probably wouldn’t have gone for the same figures three or four years ago.

“But that’s the way it’s gone, people are used to it now and deal with it. I don’t look at my figure and think that I need to prove myself at that price or anything like that.”

O’Neill is optimistic Ashley Young (calf) and Emile Heskey (ankle) will be fit but Steve Sidwell (thigh) is doubtful, while question marks hang over Nigel Reo-Coker’s availability after he was again left out in midweek.