Aston Villa made a shaky start to their Cup tilt with a rollercoaster 3-1 home win over Blackburn. Youngster Nathan Delfouneso headed the opener, before Bradley Guzan saved David Dunn's penalty. Carlos Cuellar extended Aston Villa's lead, with El-Hadji Diouf dismissed, before Nikola Kalinic got one back and John Carew scored a late penalty.
League One Brighton were the next visitors to Villa Park, Delfouneso grabbing an early lead only for Tommy Elphick to level. Ashley Young and Fabian Delph weighed in ahead of a late Seagulls consolation. The fifth-round against Palace was controversial, Stiliyan Petrov grabbing a disputed late equaliser for Villa.
The return at Villa Park was level pegging until John Carew won and scored two penalties in the last nine minutes. Reading went two nil up in the sixth-round tie at the Madejski Stadium, only for Young to level leaving Carew to claim a second-half hat-trick to deny the Royals and book a semi-final Wembley spot.
Click on a link below to watch highlights of each round:
THIRD ROUND
2 January 2010: Aston Villa 3–1 Blackburn Rovers
FOURTH ROUND
23 January 2010: Aston Villa 3–2 Brighton & Hove Albion
FIFTH ROUND
14 February 2010: Crystal Palace 2–2 Aston Villa
FIFTH-ROUND REPLAY
24 February 2010: Aston Villa 3–1 Crystal Palace
SIXTH ROUND
7 March 2010: Reading 2–4 Aston Villa
