Villa's Paul Lambert welcomes back Bomb Squad

Darren Bent twice in the second half as Villa came from behind to win their pre-season opener 3-1 at Mansfield last night.

Charles N'Zogbia, Alan Hutton and Shay Given also featured with Bent with the quartet recalled as Randy Lerner looks to get use out of the club's assets after they were previously frozen out.

Lambert said: "I've always known they have been good players. Everybody knows the situation that was going on with the football club. These lads have been brilliant, Darren has worked ever so hard, Alan is the same, and Charles has come back from a year out. There are some major positives as you can see."

Alex Fisher headed Mansfield into the lead but Bent's double and Gary Gardner's 85th minute strike sealed a low-key victory.

Villa fly out to Texas for a two-game tour against FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo on Saturday and Lambert was pleased his men escaped injury free.

"The main thing with pre-season is that nobody gets injured or hurt and thankfully nobody did," he said.

"There was a lot of positives out there with Okore coming back after eight months out and also Charles playing after a similar time away.

"There was also Gary Gardner and Chris Herd so there were quite a few players who haven't played for a long time.

"The fact that they've got through the game makes it really pleasing."