Soccer: Gregory leaves Ginola on the bench

Aston Villa boss John Gregory has made just one change to the team which beat French side Rennes 1-0 last Wednesday to set up the Intertoto Cup final against Basle.

David Ginola was dropped to the bench for the first leg against the Swiss outfit, managed by former Spurs head coach Christian Gross, at the recently built St Jakobspark.

Ginola has been Villa’s saviour in the competition in many ways, scoring a vital away goal against Croatian side Slaven Belupo in the third round, before setting up both home and away goals against Rennes in the semi-final.

But the luxury Gregory feels he can sometimes afford to be without again started as substitute, with Hassan Kachloul operating down the left and fellow Moroccan Mustapha Hadji - starting his first game since his summer move from Coventry on the right.

Unsurprisingly Peter Enckelman was named as goalkeeper due to Peter Schmeichel, who travelled with the squad, still carrying a calf injury sustained on his debut three weeks ago.

It was Enckelman who was forced to make a smart save inside the opening two minutes as Basle’s Yakin brothers combined, a clever chip over Mark Delaney from Murat setting up Hasan for a left-footed drive from the edge of the area which the Villa keeper smothered low to his left.

Enckelman was then left breathing a sigh of relief 10 minutes later when Cameroon’s Jean-Michel Tchouga left Gareth Barry wanting before feeding a ball to Argentinian Christian Gimenez for a low, curling shot which shaved the right-hand post.

On the quarter-hour mark, though, Villa should have had the opening goal as Paul Merson’s right-wing cross to the far post was knocked down by Dion Dublin for a surprised Hadji inside the six-yard box, the ball hitting him on the right leg and drifting agonisingly wide.