Aston Villa stand-in boss 'proud' to take the club's FA Cup tie with Liverpool

Aston Villa Under 23s manager Mark Delaney could not hide his joy at taking charge of the first-team in their FA Cup third-round tie with Liverpool.

Dean Smith and the entire Aston Villa first-team training cohort were forced into self-isolation this week after 14 positive coronavirus cases over the past six days.

The Covid-19 outbreak meant Villa had to field a group of U23s and UR18 players for the FA Cup fixture, with first-team manager Smith and his coaching staff also not allowed to attend the match.

Speaking as the Villa manager to BT Sport, Delaney said: 'Certainly, selfishly it's a proud night for me.

'Ten years ago I was coaching the under 9s, now I'm taking on the best team around at the minute, the Premier League champions and a team that does well in Europe. But it's (a challenge) we're going to enjoy.'

The line-up had an average age of 18 years old and some of the players were dropped off by their parents at Villa Park as some of them are not old enough to drive.

The line-up included former Barcelona striker Louie Barry, while 20-year-old Dominic Revan captained the hosts.

Liverpool, meanwhile, fielded Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and captain Jordan Henderson in their starting line-up among a host of first-team stars.

Villa received negative coronavirus tests for the available youth players at 10am on Friday morning - just under ten hours before kick-off - meaning there was not an opportunity to do any tactical training for the game.

Delaney claimed that he trusts his players to do their own analysis of Jurgen Klopp's Premier League champions as the youngster watch Liverpool a lot.

The Villa youth coach added: 'The players watch Liverpool a lot so they can tell me a lot about them! They have some exciting players, we've seen the teamsheet and the lads are buzzing.

'We can match them in work rate and that's all we can ask for.'

First-team manager Smith is in isolation but the Villa boss was allowed to have a virtual meeting with the young stand-ins before the match.

Delaney said: 'We just had a meeting with the gaffer. He spoke to the lads in the changing room. They will be watching, they are all behind the players.

'They are rooting for them. They are going to go out with smiles on faces and enjoy the evening.'