Aston Villa striker Marlon Harewood is looking forward to the prospect of facing Finland's TPS Turku in the Intertoto Cup.

Harwood enjoyed a successful loan spell in Finland at FC Haka just before making the grade with Nottingham Forest and he told Villa's website: "When I heard we could be going back there I was quite excited, it must be five years since I last went, maybe longer.

"Obviously times have changed so I don't know what they will be like there now. The side I was with, FC Haka, were a very good team. We won almost every game we played in.

"I enjoyed my stay there, it was very good. I went there in the close season, when our season in England finishes their season starts so the manager Dave Bassett asked me to do a favour for him to go and get some experience so I said 'yea, I'll go'."

He continued: "The standard over there is quite like our Championship. Players that go over there are from all over the place.

"They have a few Finnish players but you get a lot of Russian players, Swedish players and quite a few former internationals."