A defensive shake-up in the Villa ranks has left promising youngsters Ciaran Clark and Nathan Baker with an opportunity to make the centre-back spots their own,

The duo have enjoyed plenty of game-time in pre-season and have impressed boss Paul Lambert in training and on the pitch since his arrival.

Ron Vlaar’s dragged-out arrival at the club and James Collins’ departure has also helped the young pair.

While both of the moves took time to rubber-stamp, Clark and Baker had extra time to show Lambert what they are made of, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Recently-turned 21-year-old Baker is 18 months younger than his fellow academy graduate and less experienced than the Republic of Ireland man.

But after four years of training with the first team and two successful spells out on loan, the England U21 international believes he is ready for whatever is thrown his way.

“I was at Millwall earlier last season and that helped a lot because I had stepped up to play Championship football which is a great place to learn and develop your game,” he said.

“Everyone there was great and it was a massive benefit to be able to go there and play at that standard pretty much week-in, week-out.

“I noticed the step-up from what I had played at reserve team and the academy sides.

“It’s a great feeling to be stepping out in front of a crowd at 3pm on a Saturday in a competitive game where there are league points on the line.

“Part of it as a young footballer is living away from home and that helps you mature as a person. I was obviously down there with Shane Lowry so it helped having someone else there who I knew so it was useful from a settling in perspective.”

Getting a taste of Premier League football has heightened Baker’s ambitions to succeed.

Having represented his country at various age levels, the full England squad is a long-term aim for the giant centre-half.

Baker was also on the preliminary list for Great Britain’s Olympics team but narrowly missed out.

He admitted that he would have loved to have featured at the London 2012 Games, but now his sole aim is getting more game-time for the claret and blues.

Last term he doubled his Villa appearances tally during a six-week spell in the starting XI and now has his sights set on an extended run.

“Hopefully I can establish myself at Villa and become someone who plays week-in, week-out in the Premier League for the club,’ he added.

“I don’t want to look too far beyond that to be honest.

“I have ambitions to win things and play for my country but I am realistic enough to know I’ve got to work hard to do that and it will only come through playing regularly for Villa so that is the main target at the moment.”

Meanwhile the latest striker off the Villa production line is hoping to emulate his older peers by making a breakthrough into the first team.

Michael Drennan has been in red-hot form with five goals in three matches for the reserves alerting Lambert and his coaching team to his skills.

His recent goal glut follows on from a strong finish to 2011-12 when he found the net five times in 13 appearances in the Barclays Premier Reserve League.

But he knows he has got a long way to go before he can start seriously challenging the senior strikers at the club.

Reflecting on his recent form, he said: “The goals are doing a lot for my confidence.

“It will do me good getting a few goals in pre-season and keep me going nicely into the new season.

“It is not just me but it is the passes coming from Graham Burke and Jack Grealish and also when DJ (Daniel Johnson) plays.

“It is good having them there because they can see the passes and the runs.

“It is giving me a lot of confidence so hopefully I can continue that.”

Andreas Weimann’s promotion to the first-team has left Drennan hopeful that if he continues to produce the goods for the second string, in time he will get his chance too.

The Austrian U21 international’s form at reserve level last term propelled him into the Premier League fold where he scored two vital goals to help Villa survive.

“Andreas is a player who I try and copy my runs from,” added Drennan.

“I look and see what he does. He scored a lot last year and got his chance and then took it.

“Hopefully that is what I will do. I will keep my head down and keep everything going and hopefully go where he is.”