Aston Villa cheerfully waved goodbye to the Intertoto Cup having netted one victory and keeping their fingers crossed another will come their way as well.

Ashley Young's sensational second-half effort secured Villa a 1-0 win at Villa Park for a 3-2 aggregate win over Danish side Odense and a place in next month's UEFA Cup final qualifying round.

But the real spin-off for Martin O'Neill could revolve around Gareth Barry, whose introduction for Wilfred Bouma went far better than the Northern Irishman had hoped, the cordial relationship between player and fans fuelling belief that Villa will thwart Liverpool in their attempts to sign the England star.

Bouma suffered a dislocated ankle as he flew into a tackle with Baye Djiby Fall but Young gave the Villa fans something to cheer as he cut inside from the left and lashed a right-footed thunderbolt into the top corner on 50 minutes.

Odense had struck the post in the first half through a scuffed effort from Fall, but Villa were in control for long periods and also struck the woodwork themselves late on when John Carew headed against the crossbar.

O'Neill described Bouma's loss as a "big blow" but revealed: "Thankfully the skin isn't broken, which is really good news. They've re-set it and he's now in plaster.

"It's obviously a serious injury to a player who's been playing exceptionally well - he had a great, great season last year and he will be missed."

He added: "We won the game and I think we deserved to, but it was tough.

"They had a couple of chances in the first half and it would have been very awkward for us had they scored. But I felt that we dug in and Ashley came up with a fantastic goal to win the game."

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