Pre-season positives and negatives

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Two goals in under 10 minutes earned Villa a 2-2 draw with an impre Artemi Panarin Jersey  sive Colchester United side, who provided a tough test to a claret and blue 11 made up of a number of senior players.Friedelstarted in goal, behind a first team defence of Cuellar, Knight, Davies and Shorey. With Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Osbourne and Bannan in midfield, Harewood, who spend the remainder of last season on loan at Wolves, was played as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation. Andreas Weimann, who opened the scoring against Peterborough last Saturday, had to settle for a place on the bench.Weimann in action for the reserves last seasonThe game started quietly. Villa maintained much of the po se sion,but both teams tested the opposition goalkeeper; Harewood and Albrightonon seperate occasions finishedjust wide, and Anthony Wordsworths suggestive cro s forced a catch from Friedel. It was in fact Colchester who opened the scoring after 25 minutes, Scott Vernon outjumping the Villa defence to head in Dean Hammonds free kick. A poor goal to concede from Villas point of view.Villa tried to get back into the game, with Albrightonescaping his marker and sending a stinging shot towards the bottom corner, forcing Mark Cousins in the Colchester goal into a decent save,but hewas replaced at half-time by Weimann.Astrong start to the second half by Villa was thwarted by a second Colchester goal. 11 minutes after the restart,David Foxs cro s was headed acro s goal by Clive Platt where Ashley Vincent struck fiercely into the bottom right hand corner to give the Us a 2-goal advantage.But Villa were back in the game 8 minutes later.Barry Bannans free-kick found its way into the path of Steve Sidwell, who made no mistake from 8 yards out on his left foot. A quadruple substitution on 66 minuteswas agood move by the manager, giving a number of young playersthe chance to impre s.And it paid off. With around 20minutes left, Villa were level. Weimanns shot was parried by Cousins against his own defender, McGurk showing good predatory instinct to get the final touch into the back of the net.The verdict:Cuellar is not a right backIn the end, adraw was probably a fair result. Colchester worked hard and gave a good show of themselves against a near-strength Villa side.The Young Lions were also very impre sive; Weimann and Albrighton in particular singled out for praise, and if Bannan continues his good form, it would not be surprising to see him feature regularly in the first team next season.The big worry for Villa, with the start of the Premier League nearing ever closer, is the state of the defence. The lineup against Colchester would have been typical of that in a league game last season, and some sloppy defending, particularly from Davies, only highlighted ONeills need to buy a good quality centre back to replace Laursen.And, no matter how much the manager wants to pretend Cuellar is no right back.  Wayne Gretzky Jersey