IT'S FA Trophy time again on Saturday and the visit of Margate provides us with the prospect of another exciting tie.

The competition has been good to us so far this season with consecutive home mat-ches against Aldershot and Newport County.

Both were quality teams and the matches were open and exciting affairs. Saturday has the added bonus of having Conference opposition.

Our players will certainly be keen to show they can compete with Chris Kinnear's team and we owe them one from last time the two sides met at St George's Lane two years ago.

That was when Mark Tucker put through his own goal to gift them three points.

As I've said before the lure of Wembley is no longer there and has taken the shine off the Trophy but for Villa fans like me the prospect of Villa Park is still an enticing one.

We will have to mix things up a bit formation wise because Jon Holloway and Adam Wilde are both suspended. As soon as they picked up their bookings against Dover Athletic I immediately thought of the Trophy game but they are out and there is nothing we can do about it.

We have to make the best of the situation and for the players who come in it is an opportunity for them to stake a claim for a place.

Ability

They've got the ability and that's the way they should look at it because I will be looking for them to make a big impact.

In a season dominated by injuries once again it was good to see the return of Stewart Hadley, Marc Burrow and Mark Shail to competitive action.

It's a clich but it is like having three new signings and it really has been tremendous to have them back.

Hopefully we can improve their fitness and they can come in and make a solid contribution.

New signing Mitch Counsell made a good start in midfield against Moor Green and he came to our attention via former Newport County boss Tim Harris.

He definitely seems worth having a sustained look at and it will be interesting to see how his future pans out.

The Moors proved a difficult match last Saturday and we were pleased with a point in the end. They are a good side who have been on a good run though perhaps with too many draws for their liking.

Having seen how they played though I was grateful for a point even though Darren Middleton missed a penalty to win it.

But as critical as I was of some of our play some aspects of the team were outstanding, notably Danny McDonnell and the defence. They were getting everything - feet, stomachs, faces - in the way during some desperate defending but that earned us the chance of a draw.

Impressive

David Holmes was also impressive and he worked extremely hard to get us back into the game after we had made a slow start.

Unfortunately after the Dover result, and the disappointing draw against Hinckley, perhaps a point is not good enough at this stage of the season.

A point at the Moorlands would have been good enough back in October but when you are playing catch up it is not so good and we really need to be talking about victories.

JOHN BARTON was talking to reporter NAT SYLVESTER.