O’Neill promises positive football

Posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 12:31 pm and is filed under News.

Aston Villa manager, Martin O’Neill, has promised the club’s fans that his team won’t hold back when they take on Rapid Vienna in a must-win Europa League playoff tie on Thursday evening.

Heavily fancied Villa were shocked by the Austrian Cup champions in Vienna last week, and will now need to win their home fixture if they wish to qualify for the group stages of the 2009/2010 Europa League tournament.

“Obviously we are at a disadvantage,” O’Neill conceded to ESPN. “We will have to go with all guns blazing in the game mindful of the fact that then we might end up having to score three to win. It is a game to be careful about but by the same token not to be too cautious.”

“Vienna will present difficulties to us. But the confidence we got from the win over Liverpool on Monday will stand us in good stead. It could happen that we might well concede an early goal but we have shown in the past that we can come back from a deficit.”

Villa will be boosted by the return of striker John Carew from injury. Carew will be joined by winger Ashley Cole, who was also absent form the first leg of the Europa League playoffs due to injury.