Villa's evening got off to a bad start before the match had even started as Lee Hendrie and Juan Pablo Angel pulled out of the squad before the team bus left the training ground and then Patrik Berger, in the squad for the first time in five months, injured himself in the pre-match warm-up.

With the team having to be reshuffled it was always going to be a difficult game for the Villans, especially considering the fact that City had won their last six home games on the bounce.

Just 17 minutes in, O'Leary's problems worsened as Greek international Georgios Samaras raced through on the Villa goal and, thanks to some poor goalkeeping from Thomas Sorensen, drilled the ball home at the second attempt.

The home side controlled the rest of the half as Villa failed to get going and with Baros limping off five minutes before the break, Villa faced an almost impossible task.

The second half got off to an even worse start than the first from a Villa point of view as former Villan Darius Vassell poked the ball into the back of the net just two minutes after the interval.

With only five minutes of the game remaining and with the FA quarter finals looking out of reach, Steven Davis burst through the City back-line before slotting the ball past David James to set up a tense finale.

However, it was not to be Villa's night as, despite piling every player into the City box for the final corner of the game, O'Leary's men ran out of time and the FA Cup dream came to a premature end.

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Aston Villa Poll