O'Neill surprise at Blues fan Gardner

Villa boss Martin O'Neill admits even he was not in on one of the best-kept secrets in Midlands football - Craig Gardner's allegiance to Birmingham!

The 23-year-old midfielder will return to Villa Park tomorrow for the first time since his controversial £3.5m January transfer window switch across the city.

Despite having previously claimed his support lay with the claret and blues, Solihull-born Gardner, who came through the academy at Villa, wasted no time revealing he was in fact a closet Blue Nose.

It surely means the chances of Gardner, whose brother Gary is still on the books at Villa, receiving a warm reception from the Villa Park masses in tomorrow's eagerly-anticipated noon showdown will have receded further still.

And O'Neill has revealed the former England Under-21 star's revelation came as a shock as much to him as anyone.

He said: "I was reluctant to see him go but Craig wanted to play first-team football. I didn't know he was a closet Birmingham fan anyway!

"His younger brother is a really fine prospect, although he is injured at the moment, so he better not have any ideas about poaching him!

"He wanted to go. There were a number of teams interested and he wanted to go to Birmingham and I didn't want to stop him from doing that."

Gardner sought the move after becoming frustrated by a lack of first-team opportunities at Villa Park and towards the end of his stay was even struggling to get on the bench.

O'Neill continued: "He was concerned he might not get the chances other senior players do. In an ideal world I'd have preferred to have kept him but he's playing regularly and enjoying it.

"Craig is definitely one that with regular football his proper match fitness improves immensely."

That is exactly what he is starting to get at St Andrew's after forcing his way into Alex McLeish's first team, albeit in a wide-right role. And Gardner's success has come as no surprise to his former manager.

"When he was fit there weren't too many squads that he wasn't involved in here," said O'Neill. "He's strong, aggressive, as brave a lion and has a fantastic shot.

"I think he always felt that, given a regular run in the side from an attacking midfield position, he was capable of scoring and I don't disagree."

It remains to be seen whether the Villa manager's prediction that Gardner will receive a "pretty positive reception" proves to be the case but O'Neill does not expect him to be fazed by the occasion.

"It won't be a problem to him," he added. "I'm quite sure it (the reception) will be pretty positive. Craig did fine here. It was the lack of regular first-team opportunities that was just starting to frustrate him."

Blues head into the game bidding to avenge the 5-1 defeat inflicted on them the last time they visited Villa Park two years ago. That season they were relegated from the Premier League.

However, this time McLeish's men have established themselves in the top half of the table with their new-look defence, which includes summer arrivals Joe Hart, Roger Johnson and Scott Dann, the cornerstone for much of their success.

And O'Neill expects City to do their best to frustrate his team, who have at times struggled to break sides down at Villa Park this season.

He added: "I expect them to go into the game in the manner they've approached a lot of matches - keep it tight and be physically strong.

"I think the two centre-halves (Johnson and Dann) have done fantastically well for them all year.

"There was a period midway through the season when they were getting fantastic results and were hard to beat and I think that's what they're trying to get back to.

"They have done excellently. Alex is a very, very good manager. I have experience of him from up in Scotland and I knew that when he got his teeth into the job that he would make things happen for them.

"Unfortunately, they went down to come up but if you come back up immediately then those things are forgotten and they've got stronger because of it. I think things are on the up for them."

O'Neill admits he is powerless to prevent the vile taunts towards Brummie-born striker Gabby Agbonlahor's mother which have tarnished recent derby games.

But he says opposition fans could do worse than take heed of the England international's message that their sick chants simply fuel his desire to find the net - something he has succeeded in doing in each of the last three games against Blues.

"I would prefer they didn't exist in the game," he added. "He's been brilliant in the games and it doesn't seem to have affected him if his goalcoring is anything to go by."

Stephen Warnock, Richard Dunne and skipper Stiliyan Petrov are all expected to recover from knocks sustained in Wednesday's win at Hull.

"They all want to be fit for the game," added O'Neill. "There's an improvement in Stiliyan and I know he wants to play.

"Stiliyan made me aware at half-time he had a problem. He said he'd keep going until a stage we maybe got a second goal and as it turned out that was what happened."

By Brendan McLoughlin