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Villa breezed through their first pre-season friendly with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Mansfield on Thursday night.

Goals from Darren Bent (two) and Gary Gardner sealed the win but most importantly Paul Lambert's troops came through unscathed.

Here's five things we learned from the new-look Villa squad.

- Darren Bent can still produce the goods.

Give him the service and the striker will do the rest. He may not have played a competitive game for Villa in 14 months but he sure looked up for it last night. Two goals in a pre-season friendly against a League Two side is nothing to shout home about, but once again he proved that he can do the business. The Bomb Squad is back and Bent is a major part of it.

- Alan Hutton showed promising signs.

The Scottish right-back looked like the Alan Hutton of old. Purposeful, direct and creative. He played in the second half team and was arguably the stand-out performer of that period. Involved in two of the three goals, Hutton looked a serious threat going forward. Of course there will be tougher tests, defensively, ahead.

- Jores Okore showed no signs of psychological weakness.

After almost a year on the sidelines the centre half could have been forgiven for taking it easy in his first competitive match back. Okore is clearly made of sterner stuff, though, and those ten months or so out injured are now well behind him. The Danish ace was strong in the tackle and determined. Let’s hope he can now become the perfect partner for Ron Vlaar.

- Villa still need wingers.

A good old-fashioned flanker would fit perfectly into this Villa team. Aleksandar Tonev just hasn’t cut it since he’s been at the club and Charles N’Zogbia has only just returned to full fitness. After losing Marc Albrighton this summer, Villa could do with a direct wideman who can create chances for the forwards.

- Villa’s die-hard fans deserve a pat on the back.

The claret and blue faithful haven’t had the happiest of times in recent years but their love for Villa will never die. Last night 1,078 fans turned up to the One Call Stadium to watch their side in action. Yes the sun was shining, and yes it’s only an hour-and-a-half from Birmingham, but selling that amount of tickets for a pre-season friendly is a credit to the fanbase.