Aston Villa-Blackburn Rovers Part I: Villans Too Strong in FA Cup Clash

In the dress rehearsal to their Carling Cup semi-final double header against Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa beat the Lancashire side 3-1 in part one of what is sure to be an epic trilogy.

At Villa Park, first up was the FA Cup match, an all Premier League clash in the third round of world football's most prestigious domestic cup competition.

Goals from Nathan Delfouneso, Carlos Cuellar, and a penalty from John Carew sealed the win for Villa.

Nikola Kalinic (tipped to be the "future of Croatian football" by national team manager Slaven Bilic) replied for Rovers, but with the sending-off of El Hadji Diouf it was a task too much for the visitors to win, or even secure a draw.

Delfouneso marked a rare start for Villa with the opener after 12 minutes when he headed home Ashley Young's cross, before Cuellar doubled the lead on 37 minutes with a header from another Young cross.

Blackburn's misery was compounded in the 42nd minute when Diouf was given a straight red card by referee Howard Webb for a lunging touch-line challenge on Habib Beye.

In the second half, somewhat out of the blue an error by Brad Guzan handed Blackburn a life-line.

The club's no.2 keeper failed to hold onto an inswinging corner from substitute Morten Gamst Pedersen, with Kalinic having the simple task of tapping the ball into an empty net.

However, in the 90th minute Gael Givet brought down Carew in the penalty area, and the Norwegian international sent Rovers keeper Jason Brown the wrong way from the spot.

The win has earnt Aston Villa £67,500 in prize money, and a further £6,750 for highlights of the match.