Former Birmingham City man reveals details behind 'out of the blue' Aston Villa transfer

Aston Villa left-back Matt Targett's transfer deadline day loan switch to Newcastle United "really came out of the blue", even to his own family members.

Targett fell behind January signing Lucas Digne in the aftermath of the France international's arrival at Villa Park last month after failing to feature against either Manchester United or Everton before the still ongoing winter pause.

Not content with being an unused substitute and only being set to occasionally add to the 19 appearances in all competitions so far this season, the former Southampton full-back sought more regular first team football in the immediate term.

As cousin and one-time Birmingham City player Brian Howard has now revealed, Targett was not exactly expecting to travel to the North East.

"I was actually with him at the weekend," Howard told ChronicleLive. "Matty came home because he didn't have a game and all the family went to watch Eastleigh together.

"We've got quite a big family, and it's a close family. Matty's just so down to earth. At the weekend, he went back to watch some of his old mates play. You wouldn't think you were sat there with a Premier League footballer. He was just one of the lads.

"But, even then, we didn't think the move was going to happen, so it really came out of the blue on Sunday night."

Howard had a short spell in the Second City in 2014, joining in January after an equally small stint abroad in the Bulgarian capital with CSKA Sofia.

Five appearances followed under then-manager Lee Clark, with the midfielder's most memorable moment perhaps the only goal for Blues in a 3-3 draw.

A flicked second-half header opened the scoring at St Andrew's of what became a six-goal thriller with Derby County when a point