A much changed team makes short work of Wrexham as centre back Gary Cahill made his final appearance for Villa at the age of 22 before being sold to Bolton Wanderers for a fee of £5,400,000 in January 2008.

Cahill, like Peter Crouch, Steven Davis and Thomas Hitzlsperger before him was clearly of the class to make a long term career with Villa but Martin O'Neill deemed Cahill surplus to requirements as he had with Steven Davis and as his predecessor had done with Crouch and Hitzlsperger.

Perhaps it was with Martin Laursen and Olof Mellberg being his first choice centre back pairing he saw no room for Cahill.

But, given the injuries Laursen carried and the expectation that Mellberg would leave the club at the end of his contract the decision worried many.

Rumours of strong personalities and playing demands clashing also shone a light on issues not previously public.

That O’Neill subsequently recruited lesser players as Cahill’s de facto replacements made the move even more perplexing.

As for Cahill himself, although his initial destination was curious, to the surprise of nobody he went on to be a Premier League winning captain and the first chink in the mighty Martin O’Neill armour was opened.