Tony Carss says Aston Villa Under-21s are in a good place heading into their Premier League Cup tie against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
The Senior Professional Development Phase Coach has seen his team pick up one point from their opening two group matches following a 1-1 draw against Peterborough and a 3-1 loss to Brentford.
However, recent form in Premier League 2 and a midweek win in the Birmingham Senior Cup have left Carss in a positive mood ahead of the trip to Lancashire.
He said: “The lads have had a good training week ahead of the game; it’s a big one against Blackburn in the Premier League Cup.
“It’s a game that we want to win to put ourselves back in contention at the top end of the group.
“We’ve been pleased with performances for a while, in terms of the detail around how we want to play and imposing ourselves in games.
“Individuals are developing and improving and that’s coming together, collectively, in games at the minute.”
Starting with the game against Blackburn, the Young Lions have four consecutive Premier League Cup games.
Villa are currently bottom of the group but have the chance to turn things around and qualify as one of the top two sides with a run of good results.
He said: “We’ve got a great opportunity now with the way the structure of the competition is. It’s a big month with four Premier League Cup games consecutively.
“The first game against Peterborough, we were disappointed not to win with the amount of possession we had and the amount of ball and opportunities we had in the final third.
“To draw that game was disappointing based on the performance. You’ve got to do the right things at that end of the pitch.
“The game against Brentford was not too dissimilar. We had a lot of good moments, especially in the first half, but we didn’t have that quality in key moments to score more goals.
“We were disappointed with some of the goals we conceded in that game, having dominated large parts of it. We’ve got to be resolute and defend better.”
