No questions please, we're British

I'll be speaking to Stiliyan Petrov later today and no, I won't be asking him about Gareth Barry's return to training.

Why?

It's not that I wouldn't like to. More so that I have been politely asked not to and one wouldn't want to rock the boat.

Villa went out of their way to make sure there were no tricky questions at the friendliest ground in the world last night.

No player had a chance to splurt a word out of line because they shuffled onto the coach faster than anything we saw in that rather depressing second half.

"Can we speak to a player?", asked one reporter. "No, I don't think so", came the reply.

"Go on- just one of the younger lads about how great it is to play for Villa?".

"No- they're all on the bus", he answered, safe in the knowldge that the bus was the other side of a huge stand and there was no immediate way of knowing either way.

Still, at least the manager faced the music. Although his utterances about messers Barry and David Bentley were as brief as Zat Knight's concentration levels.

There's me thinking you would have to be at least 6'7" to outjump a giant from a corner.

So what has O'Neill learnt?

Well, that he needs a goalkeeper, a right-back, left-back cover, a centre half, a ball-winner, a right-winger and a striker who can finish.

So who were Villa linked with today? Yes, a left-winger. Although to be fair, I think 17 top flight clubs would fancy Stewart Downing in their squad.

He has also learnt that he needs a fit Martin Laursen more than ever, that Nigel Reo-Coker is no full-back, that Steve Sidwell is more than a little rusty after six or seven weeks out, that Wilfred Bouma's attitude in wanting to play is spot on but that he might need to ease back in and that he needs to act as a matter of urgency to bring in a stack of new players.

Lincoln saw the very best of Villa and the worst.

Ashley Young was at his mesmerising best one minute and the other was too busy giving some lip to the referee or to Lincoln's Scott Kerr.

John Carew scored a cracker and looked a real menace. Then limped off with "tightness" which probably suggests that with his new ginger hair he has indeed got Scottish blood somewhere.

Wayne Routlede was .... well, at times he almost dazzled as he operated in so much space that he must have thought he was at the helm of the Starship Enterprise.

But he mostly failed to park it through the asteroids.

Marlon Harewood? Proved just why he is used so often as a 20 minute battering ram. His one miss when clean through on the keeper will have been talked about by the locals long into the night.

Villa were terrific for almost an hour and then woeful.

But such are pre-season friendlies that I am not in the slightest bit worried.

These games used to be just a simple footnote at the very bottom of a daily or Sunday paper: Lincoln 3 Aston Villa 1 it would state in minute print. And you would spend the rest of the morning wondering who got the Villa goal.

Craig Gardner's injury is a big worry though.

Time for O'Neill and the board to get moving and quick.

Which brings me back to Petrov. A couple of text messages have arrived over the last hour or so.

The first: "He is having his lunch", and the second: "he is having treatment".

I am expecting a third: "His mobile battery has ran out".