Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel is excited by the prospect of helping the club enjoy a long UEFA Cup run this season.

The 37 year-old American told Villa's website: "I was at the game on Saturday and it was tremendous to see 31,000 people turn up for an Intertoto Cup tie. I was thankful for the reception that I got at half-time.

"The boys did well to get through into the UEFA Cup because I know they worked really hard all through last season to finish sixth.

"Sixth would generally get you into the UEFA Cup automatically but this year Villa had to enter the Intertoto Cup and it would have been a shame to have been knocked out in the first round.

"But the players did really well and now we can hopefully look forward to a decent European campaign."

The former Blackburn man added: "The European campaign was one of the things that appealed to me but there are a lot of things about this football club that were very appealing to me.

"When I started speaking with Aston Villa it was easy to see why a lot of people are talking about this club.

"People are becoming very inquisitive about the things that are going on around here. I think this is going to be a very exciting place to be."