Martin O’Neill believes his squad will be mentally prepared to achieve their dream of European football via the Intertoto Cup - insisting their indifferent pre-season results so far has no bearing on how they will fare against Danish side Odense BK on Saturday.

Bolstered by more than 500 travelling fans, Villa will take on the Superliga side this weekend before the return at Villa Park on July 26 and while O’Neill’s side have suffered defeats against Zurich and Lincoln City so far, the Northern Irishman is convinced his players will be sufficiently psyched up.

He said: “We have got to get into competitive mode for Saturday and it is a very, very important game. Having said that, I am not overly concerned about the results thus far.”

Villa defeated midfielder Moustapha Salifou’s former side Wil 1900 6-0 in their opener but O’Neill says the 2-1 defeat to Zurich and the 3-1 reverse at Sincil Bank are not a problem in the great scheme of things.

“I thought we started off brightly at Lincoln,” he reflected. “I was disappointed to concede as many goals as we did and, while we prefer not to be beaten, I am too long in the tooth to worry about pre season results.

“I have had teams who have done fantastically well in pre-season games and then can hardly put one foot in front of the other in their first competitive match. We have to get ourselves mentally tuned in for Saturday - it is a really big match but I am confident we can.”

O’Neill conceded that defeat to the Imps had highlighted the paucity of his squad but assured supporters that he was progressing deals. While he refused to confirm the expected arrival of £2.5 million-rated goalkeeper Brad Friedel or that Villa were still chasing Blackburn Rovers’ David Bentley, he said players would be coming in.

“We played Nigel Reo-Coker at right back against Lincoln because of an injury to Craig Gardner. Previously, Olof Mellberg had played there but with him gone it is a position we want to do something about,” O’Neill added.

“I think there are umpteen players that have been linked with us and not because of the Lincoln showing, but we need to bolster the squad. I have said before that we have one of the smallest squads in the Premier League and that is a situation we want to address.”

O’Neill added: “The Lincoln game obviously highlighted that we have to bring in players - a right back, for example. We also had Freddy Bouma back and he had only trained for one day with us and was playing at centre-back in a role he has played for Holland.

“I thought we were comfortable in the first half but, in a way, I was pleased about the second half because if you coast through games, then it is not a real test.

“To be under pressure in the second half was a good test for us and it brings home how tight games can be. This was an important game for us in terms of fitness but it is also a matter of getting ourselves psyched up for Saturday.”

Danish defender Martin Laursen will be fit although Gardner faces a late fitness test.

Skipper Gareth Barry, who reported back to training with his team-mates yesterday, is unlikely to feature. The England international midfielder trained but purely to keep his match fitness levels up and to ensure Villa stuck to Professional Footballers’ Association directives which govern players handed club suspensions.

O’Neill was not at the Bodymoor Heath training ground yesterday due to a prior engagement and so there was no showdown meeting, as many had expected.

There were conflicting reports on Merseyside; on one hand, Liverpool were said to be still eager to bid but struggling to come up with the £18 million required while others suggested manager Rafael Benitez was no beginning to tire of the saga and may turn his attentions elsewhere - a situation which would leave Barry in an uneasy limbo.