Premiership: Southgate steeled for Villa return

Gareth Southgate is anticipating a hot reception from Aston Villa fans when he returns to his former club with Middlesbrough next Saturday.

Southgate left Villa after questioning their ambitions and because he felt the need to play Champions League football was vital to his England aspirations.

But he caused more than a few eyebrows to be raised when he ended 12 months on the transfer list by switching to Boro in the summer after six years with Villa.

Now he will be back at Villa Park at the weekend for the first time since his £6m move and he is bracing himself for the kind of reaction from the terraces that Ugo Ehiogu, Mark Bosnich, Dwight Yorke and Steve Staunton have encountered in the past.

But former Villa skipper Southgate insists that will not sour his memories of the club with whom he won the League Cup in 1996 and played for in the 2000 FA Cup final - the last to be held at Wembley.

Southgate, who won his 44th cap against Sweden at Old Trafford on Saturday, said: "I am still not sure how the Villa supporters will react to me but I am preparing myself.

"I saw the reception that Dwight Yorke and Mark Bosnich endured when they came back to Villa so I should probably prepare myself for the worst.

"Whatever happens, whatever reaction I get, won't change the fact that I still have some very fond memories of my years at Villa.

"I won a League Cup there, skippered them to their first FA Cup final for more than 30 years and played in some fantastic European clashes.

"I also take great pride from the fact that my name is up on the board in gold as the most capped England player ever at the club.

"Those are great memories to have and I won't let any of that be over-shadowed by my final 12 months.

"I never let the club down on the pitch. I am a professional and, despite what was going on in the background, much of which the supporters were never privy to, I always gave everything."