Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel is excited by the prospect of helping the club enjoy a long UEFA Cup run this season.
The 37 year-old American told Villa's website: "I was at the game on Saturday and it was tremendous to see 31,000 people turn up for an Intertoto Cup tie. I was thankful for the reception that I got at half-time.
"Sixth would generally get you into the UEFA Cup automatically but this year Villa had to enter the Intertoto Cup and it would have been a shame to have been knocked out in the first round.
"But the players did really well and now we can hopefully look forward to a decent European campaign."
The former Blackburn man added: "The European campaign was one of the things that appealed to me but there are a lot of things about this football club that were very appealing to me.
"When I started speaking with Aston Villa it was easy to see why a lot of people are talking about this club.
"People are becoming very inquisitive about the things that are going on around here. I think this is going to be a very exciting place to be."