Iain Dowie gets a chance to test his team against quality Premiership opposition on Wednesday as QPR travel to Aston Villa

Aston Villa v Queens Park Rangers
Carling sponsored League Cup Third Round
Wednesday September 24, Kick Off 7.45pm
Villa Park, Birmingham

You'd be forgiven for thinking, with £40 tickets for home games and Wednesday night trips to Aston Villa, that we've already arrived back in the Premiership. QPR have certainly behaved like an arrogant Premiership club over the past ten days, culminating in yesterday's spin laced climbdown on the scandalous ticket price rises, but tonight we get a chance to see just how close we are to becoming one of the elite on the pitch.

A 1-0 defeat at Coventry on Saturday hints at a lot of progress still to be made before we can even consider playing teams like Aston Villa on a regular basis but that was only our second defeat of the season and on another day we would have beaten the Sky Blues by three clear goals. It was just one of those afternoons where the ball wouldn't go in the net no matter how hard we tried or how well we played. Such was the form going into that match - good and getting better - I didn't come away too disheartened and still think we've got plenty about us and a great chance of making the top six this season.

Those credentials will be tested to the absolute maximum at Villa Park tonight. Had we drawn Martin O'Neill's side at home I would have made this the tie of the round, and fancied our chances of causing an upset in front of a big home crowd. As it is we travel to the Midlands for the second time in five days and face an uphill battle to avoid a real mauling at the hands of one of the best teams in the country at the moment.

We certainly have the players to come to Villa and cause a few problems - but then the likes of Laursen, Davies, Barry and Reo Coker are paid tens of thousands of pounds to face people far more adept and experienced at taking Premiership teams apart than Ladesma, Cook, Buzsaky, Parejo and Blackstock. We're better equipped for an upset than we were on our last visit to this ground four years ago but Villa have come on in leaps and bounds since then as well and although they're fixture list over the past few weeks may mean this game is somewhere below washing the kit and cleaning the boots on the pririty list this is a competition they are one of the favourites to win, one that O'Neill likes and one that I'd expect them to take very seriously.

As ever with a match like this we'll need Villa to be below par and our players to excel themselves but Dowie disposed of Man Utd and Blackburn last season when in charge of a Coventry side nowhere near as good as the one we have now so it's not totally impossible.

Five minutes on Aston Villa
Aston Villa are a club that the likes of Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle, West Ham and even ourselves should have a really good look at as a shining example of how to run a football club. They, like everybody else these days, have a billionaire owner but unlike some of the megalomaniac control freaks running other clubs Randy Lerner knows he has a world class manager in charge of his team and is calmly letting him get on with it.

O’Neill has rewarded his boss’ faith by building an exciting, young, predominantly English side that stands a really, really good chance of breaking into the top four of the Premiership this season. There’s no free flowing, sexy football, but they’re not a hoof and hope team having said that. As you’d expect with O’Neill in charge there’s an emphasis on pace, decent wingers, a quality target man and goals from set pieces. They concede goals in bucket loads as well as scoring them but they are a good side to watch and a dangerous one to play – certainly they stand a very good chance in the knock out competitions they are entered for this season, you wouldn’t want them in League, FA or UEFA Cups and sadly we’ve drawn the short straw this Wednesday. I would have liked to drawn them at home but it’s to Villa Park we go.

We were here in this competition four seasons ago of course when Ian Holloway was in charge. QPR were just settling into life back in the Championship after a promotion while Aston Villa were being managed by David O’Leary. Villa won that night, but O’Leary’s reign was destined for failure. He always struck me, even at the height of his managerial career at Leeds, as somebody that would struggle to inspire his way out of a wet paper bag never mind a team of players to go out and give it their all. O’Leary did of course enjoy tremendous success at Leeds that will probably never be matched again by anybody else at Elland Road but he did it spending more than £100m worth of money they didn’t have and when Deadly Doug wasn’t quite so forthcoming with the readies at Villa Park O’Leary showed himself up as a pretty mediocre manager. He fell out with the fans and said they were fickle, they retorted with the greatest banner ever seen at a football match “we’re not fickle, we just don’t like you.” Brilliant.

The end of O’Leary’s reign coincided with a similar fate for infamous chairman Doug Ellis who had been hiring and firing managers at Villa Park since 1982 but who was suffering with ill health by the time Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner bought him out in 2006. After so many dodgy managerial appointments in Ellis’ time at the club it’s ironic that he finally got it so, so right in Martin O’Neill just as he was about to step down.

O’Neill was part of Brian Clough’s all conquering Nottingham Forest side as a player and cut his managerial teeth at Wycombe as they climbed into the league from the Conference and cemented their place. People often forget that O’Neill joined Norwich next but he was soon on his way out of Carrow Road after a fall out with detestable Canaries Chairman at that time Robert Chase. Leicester were the main beneficiaries taking O’Neill on and immediately earning promotion to the top flight – O’Neill got the Foxes top half Premiership finishes in four consecutive seasons and won the League Cup on two occasions. He won everything there was to win at Celtic and took them to a UEFA Cup final, no mean feat for a Scottish side, before moving south to Aston Villa.

O’Neill is a manager I admire massively. He always gets the best out of players and has them achieving performance levels they never managed before and never quite reach once they leave him. His tactics are spot on and his attitude to the game really refreshing. I’d kill to have him in charge of QPR. Between them him and Lerner are a dream ticket for Villa – the supporters there are lucky to have them. Hopefully we can go to Villa and cause an upset in the midst of a hectic run of fixtures for the home side but O’Neill grew up under Brian Clough, a manager who took every cup seriously and won plenty of obscure and now defunct tournaments as a result. O’Neill has always taken the League Cup seriously and his young Villa team, with a solid core of English recruits and graduates from their impressive academy, are going to be seriously tough to crack.

Men to watch
Goodness me, who not to watch! If there is a team to break the dominance of the top four it looks very much like Villa could be the side to do it so there’s plenty of danger for QPR to watch out for depending on what sort of team O’Neill picks. His record in this competition with Leicester suggests it will be a pretty much full strength side despite Villa’s taxing fixture list in recent weeks.

As with all Martin O’Neill teams Villa are a direct and pacy outfit who score a lot of goals from set pieces, without ever becoming an out and out long ball outfit. It’s no surprise therefore that the target man is a big player for the team and in John Carew O’Neill has one of the best in Europe to lead his attack. Carew left the field early against Tottenham last Monday and missed the European game on Thursday but played and scored against West Brom on Sunday. That was his fourth of the season already and 20th in 51 games for Villa since moving from Lyon at the start of last season – Villa are the Norwegian striker’s seventh club and Britain is the sixth different county he has played in. He’s been there, seen it and done it and he’s a super player. Should his fitness worries resurface, or O’Neill decide he needs a rest, then Marlon Harewood will probably replace him and Rangers fans certainly know all about him after he scored against us for Forest and West Ham in recent seasons.

Alongside either Carew or Harewood will be Gabby Agbonlahor who is really pushing for an England call up now after a string of excellent performances and another classy goal at the Hawthorns on Sunday. Agbonlahor is a product of Villa’s successful academy set up and has pace to spare – a foot race between him and Damion Stewart will certainly be interesting should the situation arise on Wednesday night. He’s going to be a wonderful player Agbonlahor, and he will surely be a part of Capello’s next squad.

One of the biggest threats in the Villa team is Ashley Young, Lee Cook’s replacement at Watford a few years ago and yet another Villa player on the fringes of the England squad. With QPR looking a little weak defensively in the full back positions the quality of Villa’s wide players could be the key difference and with the likes of Milner and Young running at us we could have serious issues – still Ramage has 50 odd games at this level for Newcastle so he knows what it’s all about. I hope. Thankfully James Milner is cup tied.

All the talk in the summer was of course about Gareth Barry who wanted to move to Liverpool, said he wanted to move to Liverpool, didn’t train with Villa at the start of pre-season, gave an interview to the News of the World disparaging Villa and then, when O’Neill’s fantastic mind games with Benitez finally derailed the move, Barry returned to the Villa side to a standing ovation from his own fans. Forgiving lot in these parts it seems. If either he, or former West Ham man Nigel Reo Coker, is rested for this one another youth team graduate Craig Gardner could deputise. Former Celtic man Stylian Petrov adds further threat from deep.

At the back Villa have Curtis Davies who was less than impressive on his last appearance against QPR, a 3-3 draw between Rangers and West Brom, but has also been tipped for international honours. Martin Laursen is a class act alongside him and Villa have spent big on full backs Nicky Shorey and Luke Young this summer. Zat Knight and Carlos Cuellar also stand a good chance of starting this one I would say.

Brad Friedel is a world class keeper behind all of that. Should be a piece of cake this.

Previous Meetings
Fresh from promotion from League One Ian Holloway took his QPR team to Villa Park at the second round stage of this competition in 2004. Rangers had started the season at their new level pretty nervously but beat Swansea City 3-0 in the first round at Loftus Road to set up a trip to the Midlands. Roared on by nearly 3000 travelling fans and coming into the match on the back of three consecutive league wins there were high hopes of an upset but ultimately the class of the Premiership side shone through. Darius Vassell finished a neat passing move on the half hour to give Villa the lead then Angel doubled the advantage after slack marking by Shittu and co. Rangers briefly came back into the game when confusion between Sorensen and Mellberg presented Kevin Mcleod with an open goal from two yards out but the outstanding player on the night Nolberto Solano whipped home a thirty yard free kick to kill QPR off once and for all twelve minutes from time.

Aston Villa: Sorensen, De la Cruz, Mellberg, Samuel, Whittingham, Solano, McCann, Hendrie (Hitzlsperger) Barry (Berson) Angel, Vassell (Cole)
Subs not used: Postma, Davis

QPR: Day, Bignot, Shittu, Gnohere (Santos) Edghill, Rowlands (Cook) Johnson (Furlong) Branco, McLeod, Gallen, Cureton
Subs not used: Bircham, Cole
Bookings: Bignot

Head to Head: Villa wins – 17
Draws – 9
QPR wins – 21

Previous Villa v QPR results:
2004/05 Villa 3 QPR 1 (McLeod)
1995/96 Villa 4 QPR 2 (Dichio, Gallen)
1995/96 QPR 1 Villa 0 (Gallen)
1995/96 Villa 1 QPR 0 (League Cup)
1994/95 Villa 2 QPR 1 (Yates)
1994/95 QPR 2 Villa 0 (Dichio, Penrice)
1993/94 QPR 2 Villa 2 (McGarth og, Penrice)
1993/94 Villa 4 QPR 1 (Ferdinand)
1992/93 QPR 2 Villa 1 (Ferdinand, Allen)
1992/93 Villa 2 QPR 0
1991/92 Villa 0 QPR 1 (Ferdinand)
1991/92 QPR 0 Villa 1

QPR’s 3-1 win at Villa Park in the 1989/90 season, featuring a hat trick from player manager Trevor Francis, is the featured game in the memorable match column this week - click here for details.

Team News
QPR suddenly have an embarrassment of riches at centre half with Damion Stewart and Kaspars Gorkss the men in possession, Fitz Hall back from injury on the bench at Coventry and Matt Connolly available for selection after his one match ban. Peter Ramage left the field with a knock on Saturday, and was playing pretty poorly before that, so Connolly may come in at right back if he does return then take two from the other three for the central positions. Daniel Parejo and Akos Buzsaky both did their recall causes no harm at the Ricoh and will be pushing Rowlands, Ledesma and Cook for their places. I’d like to see Rowlands replace Mahon or Leigertwood at the base of the midfield five but that seems unlikely to happen.

Villa are said to be considering resting John Carew, Curtis Davies and Ashley Young after they recovered from knocks and bumps to take part in the West Brom game at the weekend. James Milner is cup tied after playing in Newcastle’s win at Coventry in the previous round.
Injury List

Referee
Premiership referee Lee Mason is the man in the middle for this one – Villa won 4-1 at home to Newcastle the last time he was in charge at Villa Park while QPR have a mixed past with him. After the weekend just gone though it’s impossible not to talk about Mike Riley and Stuart Attwell in this midweek refereeing column.
Details

Elsewhere
As happened last week the majority of the action took place last night with QPR playing a day later. Newcastle v Spurs both trying hard to lose is the live Sky game this evening while Blackburn face Everton in another all Premiership clash. Wigan travel to Ipswich and Portsmouth host Chelsea in two other eye catching games while money bags Man City have to play Brighton in a round two match down at the Withdean. Last night Rotherham United knocked out a Championship side for the third consecutive round – Southampton the victims this time. Man Utd and Liverpool survived scares to progress while Arsenal’s youth team beat Sheff Utd 6-0, a frightening thought. West Ham lost at Watford, Swansea won the battle of South Wales against Cardiff and Fulham were beaten by Championship side Burnley.

Form
The undeserved 1-0 defeat at Coventry on Saturday was only QPR’s second set back of the season so far. Prior to that they had been on a run of four wins and a draw from five games. So far in this competition QPR have beaten Swindon away and Carlisle at home without breaking too much of a sweat. Away from home though the form hasn’t been quite so impressive with just two wins, at Swindon and Norwich, from five games – the point and performance at Bristol City was credible, at Sheff Utd (0-3) and Coventry (0-1) less so. It’s the lack of a cutting edge that may cause QPR problems on the road this season – Rangers missed enough chances to win five or six matches in the games at Norwich and Coventry and only managed one goal in those two games.

If you thought our Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday morning fixture list was a bit excessive, it’s nothing compared to what Aston Villa are currently facing who have all of that plus a trip to a waterlogged pitch in Bulgaria last Thursday besides. They come into this game on the back of three consecutive, terrific away wins in a week – Spurs, Litex and West Brom were all beaten over the past seven days and there were some terrific performances and goals from Villa in amongst that. So far at Villa Park Martin O’Neill’s men have two wins, against Odense and Man City, and two draws against Liverpool and Hafnarfjordur – try saying that after a few pints.
Form Guide

Prediction
I’m going for the same scoreline we managed on our last visit here. On that occasion we were fresh out of League One, Ian Holloway was in charge and the team was fairly limited truth be told. Now we have an excellent, young, vibrant team playing good football and hoping for promotion. However the Villa side that beat us last time was managed by David O’Leary and was pretty rank, they’re a whole different kettle of fish now so with progress on both sides I still think a fairly comfortable Villa win is probably the most likely result.
Villa 3 QPR 1

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