Match Preview: Aston Villa v Hull City

Who are we playing?
Hull City on Sunday 31st August at 1.30 pm in the Premier League.

Where are we playing?
Villa Park.

Can I go?
Absolutely. The size of the Newcastle crowd will have sent shivers down the spine of those tasked with maximising revenue and a game at a crappo time of a Sunday won't help the gate for this one. We reckon there might be a few deals going if sales remain sluggish.

Easy to get to?
Apart from a few annoyed wives and girlfriends, there should be no major issues of a Sunday lunchtime, always worth checking the trains aren't buggered of a Sunday though.

Can I watch it on telly?
Despite the kick off time, we are not live on UK telly but we are overseas so web streams or your pub-with-a-dodgy-dish of choice are your best bets (but you can't beat actually being there). Being a Sunday, even if we are last on Match of the Day, we should get more airtime than we did for the first two games.

Steve Bruce

Big game?
Optimists would say not. Realists and pessimists would say potential six-pointer. Certainly anything other than three points will feel like failure so we have to get the creative juices of the team flowing. You can't win matches if you can't score goals.

With Potatohead's men adapting to the rigours of European competition and squad rotation, this could be the ideal time to play them. James Chester's sending off and subsequent suspension is a plus for us but the resilience of their ten men against Stoke is an indication that this will be no walk in the park.

What has Hull ever done for us?

• Hull writer John Godber's Bouncers , is one of the most frequently performed plays in the English language

• J. Arthur Rank was born in Hull (make up your own jokes).

• Those Humbrol paints you used to use on your Airfix kits came from Hull.

• The Bounty, skippered by Captain William Bligh until his crew mutinied, was built and launched in Hull.

Carlos

Who's playing for us?
We'd expect Carlos Sanchez to force his way into the starting line-up but other than that, we wouldn't expect much disruption to the side that has a unbeaten start to the league season.

Who's playing for them?
Steve Bruce is making maximum use of his squad to cope with Europa League activity. Hull's travelling contingent will no doubt be hoping to see Michael Dawson in action. Jelavic will pose our new defensive line-up a few more problems than Stoke or Newcastle managed.



Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Hull City have beaten us five times while we have 17 victories. There have been 7 draws.

• The Tigers last beat us back in August 1987 at the start of Graham Taylor's tenure. Warren Aspinall scored our goal as we lost 2-1.

• Aspinall obviously like playing against Hull because he netted twice in the return game at Villa Park on New Years Day 1988. Andy Gray also bagged a couple and Alan McInally got one as we ran riot 5-0

• Hull's solitary Villa Park success was back in November 1967. We lost 3-2 espite a brace from Brian Greenhalgh.

Prediction
Worried about our lack of firepower but going for a 2-1 Villa win.