By Cameron Sinclair

Villa's youngsters hit the road to take on PSV Eindhoven in the second game of this season's NextGen Series tonight.

After a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home to Sporting Lisbon in their opening encounter, they are aiming to kick start this year's campaign in Holland.

Last year, Tony McAndrew's side reached the quarter finals despite losing their first game, and striker Michael Drennan is confident that they can recover from a losing start again this season.

"It was disappointing to start with a loss, but we will pick ourselves up and hopefully come back with a win against PSV," he said. 

"We lost 2-0 against Ajax [last season], and went on and kicked on from there.

"I'm sure that if we get a win against PSV we will do well and we can win our games at home against Celtic and PSV."

Drennan has started the season brightly, scoring in the Sporting Lisbon game and against Stoke in the Barclays U21 Premier League.

But he is well aware that the game at De Herdgang is going to be a difficult one.

"Keeping the ball, getting men behind the ball - that's the hard part of going away to places like Holland and Portugal," he added. 

"It will be tough but hopefully we can use our experience from last year."

Even though it is going to be a difficult test, the Irishman knows that the experience of playing in European competition will benefit his footballing development both on and off the pitch.

"Going away is a good experience, especially with the international lads you get a good experience of resting, eating right, sleeping, knowing what to do as a pro," he added. 

"It's great for everyone's development, especially being around people like Daniel Johnson, who've got first team experience."

Tonight's game against PSV kicks off at 6.30pm local time [5.30pm UK].

Click here to buy tickets for the Swansea clash.