Dunne and Given heading to Euro 2012, and Barry Bannan’s back, baby

The Euro 2012 play-offs are over and we now know all 16 teams who will be competing in Poland and Ukraine next summer. Barring any injury issues, there will definitely be some Villa interest as the Irish saw out their considerable advantage from the first leg against Estonia to book their place in the finals with a 1-1 draw in Dublin.

Just try to stop Shay Given and Richard Dunne getting on that plane.

The draw for the groups will take place

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Video: Ajax vs Aston Villa highlights in the NextGen Series

Highlights from the NextGen Series will more than likely be a little thin on the ground and will rely heavily on the participating clubs’ own media departments. Fortunately, Ajax TV have done a good job of putting together this video from our 2-0 loss in Amsterdam in the opening game last week.

Of course, there might be a little bias in the edit, but this seems a fair reflection of the game from as much as I could gather. Mickey van

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NextGen Series kicks off in Amsterdam: Ajax 2 Aston Villa 0

It’s being billed as the “Champions League of youth football”, which is probably a massive overstatement, but the NextGen Series is an interesting competition nevertheless. We’re one of 16 teams across Europe taking part in this new Under-19 championship which kicked off with a handful of games this evening, including our own Young Lions going down 2-0 to Ajax at their youth training camp, De Toekomst – Dutch for “The Future”.

As the competition is so new, information is a little

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Bannan Hat-trick Caps Fantastic Display To Defeat Man Utd Reserves

I don’t get to see the reserves live as often as I would like, but as they were playing Man Utd Reserves tonight, I was able to catch the first 80 minutes of the game bossed by Gordon Cowans before the stream died on me. A very good performance it was too, lead from the front by Barry Bannan, who was near faultless throughout.

Bannan opened the scoring just after five minutes with a curled free kick from just outside

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Tottenham Set The Trend When It Comes To The Reserves

In case you didn’t notice, Tottenham sent 22 players out on 32 different loan spells last season. Why? Because Spurs elected not to take part in the Premier Reserve League during the 2009/10 season, which clearly left an awful lot of their players kicking their heels.

It’s an intriguing policy and one I personally feel isn’t too clever in the long run. Equipping your up and coming talent with competitive experience, albeit at a lower level, may well be

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Reserves Play-Off Final – Man Utd 3 Aston Villa 3 (3:2 Pens)

Man Utd Reserves were crowned 2009/10 Premier Reserve League National Champions tonight after what sounded like a thrilling game at Old Trafford, but needed a penalty shoot out to do so after coming from behind 3 times. Ben Foster the hero of the shoot out, saving twice and scoring one himself.

I didn’t see it myself, but followed the updates from various sources online, including the OS and Twitter. I’ve put the teams at the bottom and indicated the

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Aston Villa Reserves Pick Up Silverware Again

Congratulations to our reserve side who have won the Barclays Premier Reserve League South for the third year running following their 2-1 win over Fulham at Bodymoor tonight. They still have a couple of games to play, but are 5 points clear of second place Arsenal with a game in hand.

As winners of the southern league, they’ll have to face the winners from the north in a play-off final in early May. Off the top of my head,

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Championies Championies!!!

Congratulations to the reserves who beat Sunderland 3-1 to win the Barclays Reserve Leage title with goals from Delfouneso, Collins & Lowry.

In other brief news; Stan has signed a new contract which is obviously great news.

More Silverware

The Reserves win their league for the second year running and now get to play another final, this time at Villa Park.