It will be like a coming home for several of the Cardiff City players tonight at Villa Park with three of them having connections with them’
Riccardo Scimeca was a trainee with them and moved through the ranks to become a first team regular playing 50 games between 1993/1999 and another 26 times coming off the bench. In total he scored only two goals but he earned a transfer to Nottingham Forest for £3m
Peter Whittingham also started is football career with Aston Villa as a trainee and he had two short loan periods with Derby and Burnley and allow he broke into the first team he was not a regular but he was bombed out of the door by manager Martin O'Neill within months of took over in August 2006 While with Villa Whittingham became a English under 21 international and played several games for them between 2004/07.
Whittingham said: "I played under David O'Leary then things changed.
"With a new boss it can go one of two ways. Unfortunately for me, it went the bad way. Martin O'Neill played me a few times, didn't rate me and got rid of me. But it worked out as I'm happy at Cardiff."
Another Cardiff player with a connection with Aston Villa is goalkeeper Peter Enckelman who joined them from his hometown team, TPS Turku. David James blocked is way to the first spot and he hoped to get his chance when James was sold but it was short lived with the then Villa boss brought in Peter Schmeichel he was again back to playing second-fiddle. When Schmeichel left for Manchester City new Villa boss Graham Taylor gave Enckelman his chance and installed him as first choice keeper. He had loan spells with Blackburn and Cardiff City ending up joining both clubs full time after the loans.
All three should get their chance tonight at Villa Park has Cardiff look to progress onwards to the next round in the Carling Cup.
Riccardo Scimeca was a trainee with them and moved through the ranks to become a first team regular playing 50 games between 1993/1999 and another 26 times coming off the bench. In total he scored only two goals but he earned a transfer to Nottingham Forest for £3m
Peter Whittingham also started is football career with Aston Villa as a trainee and he had two short loan periods with Derby and Burnley and allow he broke into the first team he was not a regular but he was bombed out of the door by manager Martin O'Neill within months of took over in August 2006 While with Villa Whittingham became a English under 21 international and played several games for them between 2004/07.
Whittingham said: "I played under David O'Leary then things changed.
"With a new boss it can go one of two ways. Unfortunately for me, it went the bad way. Martin O'Neill played me a few times, didn't rate me and got rid of me. But it worked out as I'm happy at Cardiff."
Another Cardiff player with a connection with Aston Villa is goalkeeper Peter Enckelman who joined them from his hometown team, TPS Turku. David James blocked is way to the first spot and he hoped to get his chance when James was sold but it was short lived with the then Villa boss brought in Peter Schmeichel he was again back to playing second-fiddle. When Schmeichel left for Manchester City new Villa boss Graham Taylor gave Enckelman his chance and installed him as first choice keeper. He had loan spells with Blackburn and Cardiff City ending up joining both clubs full time after the loans.
All three should get their chance tonight at Villa Park has Cardiff look to progress onwards to the next round in the Carling Cup.
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