Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard says he will name a “strong” side for their Carabao Cup clash against Wanderers.

The Premier League outfit head to the UniBol on Tuesday night in the second round in front of the TV cameras.

Gerrard is keen to bounce back from their 3-1 defeat against Crystal Palace over the weekend despite Ollie Watkins’ early opener.

He told Birmingham Live: "Everyone will want to play in this game. I'm sure they will, especially after the feeling of losing.

“We'll dust ourselves down from the result and we will be strong. We'll pick a strong team.

"I think when the TV cameras come to games like this you know what the outside world are after... we need to respect that and protect ourselves from that.

“We need to bounce back from [Crystal Palace] and put ourselves into the next round. That's the next challenge for the players and we'll treat this game with serious importance.

"There will be changes, of course, because the game is close enough for us to try and freshen it up, and energise the squad and the team.

“There won't be wholesale changes and there won't be, 'Oh it's the League Cup, let's make all kinds of changes'. We'll be strong."

The sides haven't met since April 2019 when goals from Jack Grealish and Tammy Abraham gave the Midlands club a 2-0 victory, which saw Wanderers relegated from the Championship.

Ian Evatt’s men reached this stage thanks to a 5-1 win against League Two Salford City in the opening round.

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