Long night looming for Brett Holman's dad

Brett Holman has revealed his family back in Australia will be staying up to the early hours to watch his home debut against Everton at the weekend.

The 28-year-old midfielder is in line to make his Villa Park bow against the Merseyside club and confirmed that his progress is being keenly followed – particularly by his father.

"I presume it would be on live back home, early in the morning – I think my old man will be up and watching it," said Holman.

"He always tries to watch the games, but I don't think my mum will be up to watch it.

"She'll probably just ask him the score when he wakes up.

"But my old man always gets up, he loves watching them, so I presume he'll be up at the crack of dawn.

"They're 10 hours ahead, so it would probably be 1am.

"He keeps tabs on how I'm doing in my career," he added.

"Luckily the club have organised some stuff where my old man can watch all the highlights and watch the games on the club website.

"He loves watching whatever's available, so it's good that's all organised for him.

"There's a real excitement about me playing in the Premier League.

"They've got the same buzz that I have."

* Villa claimed a routine 3-0 win over Stoke in the U21 Premier League thanks to goals from Michael Drennan, Daniel Johnson and Josh Barton.

The league permits three over-age players so Villa included Eric Lichaj, Chris Herd and Enda Stevens in their side.