Despite bossing things for most of the game, an inability to finish and trouble with set-piece defense (where have we heard that before) combined to give Marseille a 2-1 victory of the Villa youngsters. Villa had much of the play and most of the chances in the first half but it was the visitors that went to the locker room ahead after Chris Gadi headed in Kévin Pommier's free kick. Villa would continue to threaten for the rest of the game, but it wasn't until the 90th minute that they would equalize thanks to a goal from Gary Gardner. Marseille would be the only club to score in extra time, the winner coming from Billel Omrani in the 101st minute.

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Aston Villa's U19's are set to take on Marseille in the quarterfinal of the NextGen series, one of Europe's most prestigious youth tournaments. The other clubs remaining in the tournament-Sporting, Inter, Spurs, Liverpool, Barca and Ajax-are some fine company to keep, underscoring just how well stocked Villa keep their youth system. The game is available on AVTV and doubtlessly elsewhere, so give it a watch if you've got the opportunity.

I can't speak to the current depth of Marseille's youth system, but it's historically been amongst the best in Europe. Luckily Jordan Ayew is not playing, despite being eligible. Villa's is certainly nothing to sneeze at, and they put some pretty decent whoopings on some quality teams during the group stage. Should be a fun one.

Villa Lineup: Barrett, Lewis, Webb, Williams, Kinsella, Carruthers, Gardner, Johnson, Cameron, Burke, Drennan.

Villa Subs: Watkins, Nelson-Addy,Caira, Graham, Robinson, Grealish, Melvin

Marseille Lineup: Sy, Abergel, Andonian, Aloe, Charles, Azouni, Abdullah, Gadi, Omrani, Loiacono, Pommier

Marseille Subs: Cesarini, Santiago, Bonelli, Enukidze, Fabri, Anam, Kouch

I swear, Alex McLeish listens to the pleas of Aston Villa supporters and then intentionally trolls them by doing exactly the opposite of what they're hoping for -- like sending Gary Gardner to Coventry on a month-long loan. Granted, we fans are not the coach and sometimes we're ridiculously stupid. But there were reasons for wanting Gardner to have a chance in the first team, and they were three-fold: one, two, three goals against Ajax in the NextGen series, as the Villa babies qualified for the quarter-finals. Wouldn't it be nice if someone could do that in a first-team match?

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Some happy news amidst the otherwise depressing reality that has become being an Aston Villa fan: the youth team the club sent to the NextGen Series advanced to the final eight of the tournament today with a 3-0 win over Ajax at Villa Park. Gary Gardner continued to give us all a reason to live look forward to the future as he did all of the day's scoring, continuing a run of tremendous form that began at the beginning of the season and hasn't come close to letting up. One would think he's going to be getting a crack at the first team soon enough, and watching him tear quality competition to shreds makes that premature Carling Cup exit all the more annoying.

The Villa kiddos will now face one of Barcelona, Celtic or Marseille in the knockout round, all clubs with excellent youth systems. Barcelona's is obviously a step above though, and it would be nice to see them avoided for at least a bit longer as any chance for the youngsters to earn reps against quality European competition should be welcomed. The big boys aren't giving us a lot to be excited about at the moment, but hope springs eternal and all that.

Now for heaven's sake, can we get Gardner in the team?

Here's the proof!

That link will take you to a minute-by-minute match report on the FA's website. If you scroll to the bottom of the match report, you will see that Nathan Delfouneso left the game in the 10th minute due to an injury. Because nothing Aston Villa related can ever be 100% good. No word on the severity of the injury, but let's all hope it's nothing too major.

As for the happier bit of news, Gary Gardner's 90th and 91st minute goals turned a  3-0 romp into a 5-0 laugher for the England U-21s against their counterparts from Iceland. Gardner still hasn't gotten much of a look with the first team this season but he has by all accounts made some pretty significant progress since the end of last season and performances like this aren't going to hurt his standing. With a thin Villa midfield currently anchored by a 32-year-old with a pretty extensive recent injury history, any progress being made by a young Villa midfielder is quite encouraging.

In a reserve match at Hinckley United's pitch today, Aston Villa drew Wigan Athletic 1-1. Villa ran-out a very strong lineup, featuring Ciaran Clark as captain, with Marc Albrighton, and Eric Lichaj rounding out the list of players with first-team experience. Gary Gardner was the other marquee name for Villa today. There was no TV coverage, so it's a bit hard to form a really solid opinion, but it seems that despite going down early, Villa played well and got a well-deserved draw.

In the early going it seems that Aston Villa's wing play was troubling the Wigan back line, but they held fast and didn't concede anything. It's worth noting, however, that Eric Lichaj and Marc Albrighton really seemed to click at times. Callum McManaman opened scoring in the 39th minute with a goal that was apparently quite well placed and left Villa keeper Benjamin Siegrist little chance. At the half, Wigan still held their lead even though Villa looked the better team.

In the second half, Albrighton continued his assault on the goal, launching a few long-range efforts. One got the feeling that it was just a matter of time before Villa equalised, but nothing came. As the clock ticked down and stoppage time was added, it seemed that Villa would go home as the better team, but nevertheless with a loss. Last-minute heroics by Gary Gardner, however, saved them the indignity. In the first minute of stoppage time, Gardner got his head on a cross from Albrighton and buried it in the net. I'm not too sure on the specifics, as Jack Woodward went so crazy that the audio feed cut out for about two minutes. It was the perfect cliffhanger. "Albrighton cros.. OH... :silence:"

So Villa came out even in a match that they likely should have won. Nevertheless, it's good to see Gardner doing well, and it can only be a matter of time before he makes the first team. Eric Lichaj, too, did well and surely has kept himself in the conversation for Luke Young's vacated spot.

In news that I am sure all of you were eagerly awaiting, the Aston Villa reserve team now has a schedule for its 22-game season. I don't know if the same rules apply about posting reserve league fixture lists as for the EPL fixture list, but to avoid any trouble, I direct your attention to this announcement on the official site. 

That said, I feel no worry in giving you a few highlights of matches that most of us won't see. The season begins nine days after that of the first team with the youngsters taking on Blackburn at the Leigh Sports Village. I'll be honest with you by saying that half of the joy of this list is the venues. These teams will be playing in an entire village! Think of the twists this gives the game of soccer.

Another interesting venue hosts the last game of the season, with Aston Villa traveling to play Sunderland in the Academy of Light. This is, as I am sure you know, where young ultraviolet rays go to learn how to become visible light and someday fulfill their destiny as rainbows. It apparently has a cracking pitch, as well.

But the match that I am most looking forward to comes on Halloween, when Aston Villa take on Arsenal at home. You may remember last year's meeting between the two sides as being a match in which the young Lions beat the sniveling Gunner youth by a score of 10-1. We can only hope for a similar result this year in all of the reserve league matches. I also hope that Ted can find himself some young bloggers over at The Short Fuse. That way we could have a live-blog-off on Halloween and Slaky and I could crush them 10-1 in pageviews. 

Should Aston Villa be in position to win the South Division, the playoff will be held on May 16. As much as the release of their schedule leads to a tongue-in-cheek tone, this really should be a fun group of players to watch. We'll be sure to have some coverage for you throughout the season. 

One of the best parts of being an Aston Villa supporter is knowing that there is an exceptionally strong youth system behind the first team. The success of the reserve squad hasn't always translated to the team we all regularly watch, but that's to be expected. Young talent is unpredictable, but the important thing is to have enough to give your team good odds in the youngster lottery.

So it's good to see that the Barclay's Premier Reserve League will be back again this year, and that Aston Villa are participating. This year, the league will be split into two eight-team divisions, with each team playing the other teams in its division twice, and those outside once. Over the course of these 22 games, division winners will be determined, and they will have a play-off match for the Reserve League title. The dates and times of matches have not been released yet, but we'll keep an eye on that for you. 

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