Aston Villa 3-1 Crystal Palace
Villa's Gabby Agbonlahor: opened the scoring
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Wednesday, 24, Feb 2010 09:41
By James Christie
Aston Villa are through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup after two penalty strikes from John Carew helped them beat Championship side Crystal Palace 3-1 at Villa Park.
Villa manager Martin O'Neill, mindful of his side's Carling Cup Final date with Manchester United on Sunday, decided to rest Brad Friedel, James Collins and Emile Heskey.
The Midland team started well with John Carew, Gabby Agbonlahor, James Milner and Ashley Young all hitting shots on target as Palace keeper Julian Speroni was kept busy.
Palace only had one shot on target in the first 45 minutes, a tame fourth-minute effort from Claude Davis.
So it was little surprise when Villa's Agbonlahor craned his neck to head the ball into the net from a 42nd-minute corner.
Eagles manager Neil Warnock, who is widely-expected to leave Palace for QPR later this week, had reason to be disgruntled as Villa celebrated their breakthrough. Replays suggest that the referee should have awarded a goal-kick instead of the corner which led to the goal.
Palace tried to level before the interval when a lovely back-heel from Darren Ambrose set up Nick Carle whose shot from the edge of the penalty area only just flew wide of the post of Villa goalkeeper Bradley Guzan.
Top-scorer Ambrose took his turn to try his luck from distance as Palace upped their game following Warnock's half-time team talk.
But Speroni still had work to do, standing tall as the last line of defence to save an Agbonlahor shot and then diving to prevent an Ashley Young shot from curling into the bottom corner of his net.
At the other end, Danns shot across the face of goal in the 67th minute after a game of head tennis in the Villa penalty box.
Palace then won a penalty in the 72nd minute when the referee decided Stephen Warnock had fouled Alan Lee when the opposite seemed to be true. Ambrose stepped up to send Guzan the wrong way from the spot, his 17th goal of the season.
Another penalty in the 81st minute restored Villa's lead, Matty Lawrence dragging Carew to the floor as the big man tried to turn with the ball near the six-yard box. The fouled player picked himself up and made no mistake from 12 yards.
Stewart Downing went close before Carew earned and converted his second penalty of the night in the 89th minute through time-wasting with the ball with his back to goal on the edge of the penalty area, inviting Lawrence to foul him again.
Starting line-ups
Aston Villa: Guzan, Luke Young, Cuellar, Dunne, Warnock, Ashley Young, Milner, Delph, Downing, Carew, Agbonlahor.
Crystal Palace: Speroni, Clyne, Davis, Lawrence, Butterfield, Carle, Derry, Ertl, Danns, Lee, Ambrose.