IT'S Carling Cup time again and after progressing through round one at the expense of Port Vale, WREXHAM prepare to take on Premiership side Aston Villa.
For the second year in a row, Wrexham face a side from England's second city, after they were knocked out by Birmingham City at St. Andrews last year. Although the Dragons performed well against Steve Bruce's side, they were eventually beaten after extra time.
However after progressing to round two for the second successive year, Brian Carey's side were rewarded with a home draw this time, against Martin O'Neill's Villa outfit.
The Villans gained their first win of the Premiership season on Saturday as they defeated Fulham 2-1 at Villa Park. Ashley Young's cross-shot was turned in by Zat Knight for the equaliser, and Young was involved again as he set up Shaun Maloney for a late winner.
Since Randy Lerner took ownership of the club back in August 2006, Villa have strengthened their side with a number of signings. Stilian Petrov (£6.5m), Ashley Young (£9.65m), John Carew and Shaun Maloney joined last season, as Villa eventually finished 11th in the Premiership table.
Martin O'Neill has added further depth to his squad for this campaign after signing Nigel Reo-Coker (£7.5m), Marlon Harewood (£4m) and Scott Carson (loan).
They currently sit in 11th place in the Premiership table after gaining 4 points from the first 3 games. They went down 2-1 at home to Liverpool in their first game, after a disputed free-kick led to Steven Gerrard stealing the points for Rafa Benitez's men. They followed this up with a 0-0 draw away to Newcastle United, before getting their first win at the expense of Fulham.
Wrexham will have to recover from another defeat as they went down 2-1 to Bradford City at the weekend. Although Brian Carey's team controlled spells of the game in the second half, they could do nothing to prevent substitute Luke Medley's wonder goal which turned out to be the winner.
Brian Carey kept faith with his starting eleven despite having the option of returning Mark Jones and Steve Evans to his starting line-up, and will have to decide again whether to change things around after the Bradford game.
Villa may include fringe players Shaun Maloney, Marlon Harewood, Gary Cahill and Luke Moore for this game. Stilian Petrov went off injured at half time on Saturday and could be rested.
Last Time Out
Wrexham faced Aston Villa in the League Cup back in the 1976-77 season, with Villa running out 5-1 winners. They will hope that this year's draw proves to be a good omen, as they went on to win the competition in that season, eventually going on to beat Everton in the final.
All-time results between the sides:
Aston Villa wins 6
Wrexham wins 1
Draws 2
Ben Roberts
