Aston Villa defender Zat Knight is looking forward to this summer's Intertoto Cup campaign.

Knight told the club's website: "Some people see the Intertoto as a bad thing but it can be a great way to prepare for the season. We'll be in competitive action before most of our rivals and that can be a good thing.

"When I was at Fulham we had a run in the Intertoto in 2002 and it didn't do our preparations for the season any harm - we started very strongly.

"The pressure will be on to build on last season but that's fine by me. I think we'll be putting pressure on ourselves as well because we want to keep progressing.

"Everyone wants to make a good start to the season and we're no different. There were a lot of positives last season and we want to carry them into the new season."