Villa manager Martin O’Neill has challenged his Carling Cup hopefuls to invoke the spirit of the club’s European Cup-winning legends at Wembley on Sunday.

O’Neill, a four-time League Cup winner, hopes to lead the claret and blues to their first major trophy for 14 years this weekend when they tackle Manchester United.

And the Villa boss has requested pictures of the 1981 league champions and 1982 European Cup winners to be kept up around the club’s Bodymoor Heath headquarters to act as an inspiration to his team.

He said: “We have a lot of pictures of the old teams around the training ground and why not? It is something to aspire to.

“I have often said keep the pictures up of the 1981 league winning side and 1982 European Cup winning side. The early 1980s was a fantastic spell.

“The history of the club is there to see, a great tradition, so we’d like to try and do something about it. That is really what the team is there for.

“We are far from the finished article, but it is something the Villa crowd are particularly pleased with.

“Winning a trophy is the ultimate. There is no getting away from that and it would be fantastic.”

O’Neill believes a trophy would take his claret and blue team to the next level , but knows winning the first is always the hardest.

He said: “I would agree with that. Winning the first trophy is the most difficult. I remember way back when I was at Forest, we won the Anglo Scottish Cup.

“We played Ayr and Kilmarmock and Leyton Orient in the final and we won it and the manager, Brian Clough, was in raptures about it because it was the first trophy we had won and he felt himself it was the start of something.

“The trophies the team won in the next couple of years were founded on winning that trophy. That was very important. In the scheme of things no-one would pay any attention to it, but it was important to win that first trophy.”

O’Neill has praised the performances of his players this season and believes they have provided great entertainment for the claret and blue masses this term.

He said: “Ideally that would be terrific, but the team this season has given great value for money. You have got wide players taking people on. There in inter-change, there is great movement, and these players are only improving.

“You’ve got Stewart Downing, who has had injury problems at the start of the season, joined in late November and has been a revelation. James Milner has been great in a new role but, not just their enthusiasm, but their ability has shone through.”

The claret and blue boss, whose team are also in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, has his fingers crossed this will be the first of many finals for Villa to and hopes his young side learn to become stronger for the experience of a major final.

He added: “It will be great for them, an experience regardless of the result but I am hoping getting to this stage of the competitions will become a regular feature.

“It is not that easy but it is something the players are striving for and, if you see the performances recently, they are putting everything into the games and playing particularly well.

“They are boys doing everything possible for this football club and the added incentive to get on the plane to South Africa.”