Reading V Aston Villa
Football : England : FA Cup Quarter-Final
Sunday 7th March 2010 – Kickoff 1:45pm

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It’s been but a week since that losing trip to Wembley, and one wonders where Villa’s minds will be after losing a game they led through a penalty. A sending off that never came has been the main focus of debate, as Villa finally succumbed to defending champions Manchester United.

Now, with a week to lick their wounds, Aston Villa must travel to Reading, this year’s giant-killers, with a semi-final place at Wembley up for grabs.

Reading

Howard banged in an equaliser 3 minutes into stoppages to take the tie at West Brom into extra-time. Then, to the delight of the travelling Royals fans, Sigurdsson curled in the winner from 25 yards and Reading now get to host their first FA Cup quarter-final in 83 years. Once again, the examination will be provided by Premier League opposition.

Prior to dispatching the Baggies, Reading knocked out Premier League sides Burnley and Liverpool, which is pretty impressive for a side that is fighting for it’s survival in the Championship.

Indeed, the amazing form of Reading in the cup has proved to rejuvenate the side and its form. Before February, Reading had managed just one home win, in fact, just the one league win, since the start of 2010. Dumping the more glamorous opponents out of the cup has seen their confidence grow, and that has led to a 3 match unbeaten streak in the championship, all of them wins.

In addition to 3 wins at home, Reading have also done well on their travels, where they have not been beaten in their last 3 away games either.

Reading’s last game was at home to fellow relegation strugglers Sheffield Wednesday, and the Royals put on the magnificent display, a 5-0 romp to move 4 points clear of the relegation zone, and leaving them in the perfect mindset for the visit of Aston Villa.

With the strikers in fine form, I have complete confidence in Reading to bag at least one goal, if not more depending on Villa’s mental state. But they will need to put on their best performance yet if they are to take their fans to a semi-final at Wembley.

Aston Villa

Villa will no doubt still be suffering from the heartache of losing the Carling Cup last week, so the question is whether Martin O’Neill will be able to get his young squad to snap out of it and go knock out Reading to book themselves another chance at Wembley.

There is no better antidote to a loss than winning your next game, and I reckon with the immense talent at hand, O’Neill has all he needs to put that loss behind him.

What was most impressive was the pace with which Villa came out of the blocks, grabbing an early lead via a James Milner penalty. A silly mistake let United back in the game but up to that point Villa had done very well. My only concern was that after the equaliser, Villa sat back and allowed United to dictate the pace, while settling for opportunities to break and counter-attack, which is where Villa are quite deadly.

Reading are a very diffent level of side to Manchester United, and do not command the same fear from opponents like Villa who will no doubt pour forward and bombard Reading from the get go, to try and get the early goal that could lead to the flood gates opening up.

Agbonlahor, Heskey, Milner, Young and Petrov should all be fit to lead their talented front line, and Friedel will be in goal.

Martin O’Neill, a man who many think is good enough to replace Ferguson at United, will no doubt say the right things and will have his team in the correct mental state coming into this match. The talent, as everyone knows, is already there in abundance.

THe Betting Verdict :

Reading might have found their scoring boots recently, but have been suspect all season and have been breached a number of times even in winning matches.

I expect Reading to get on the score-sheet but Aston Villa will ultimately prove too strong and the price on the away win is good enough for me.

Villa are not shy in front of goals either, so expect them to bang in a fair few themselves. The over 2.5 goals looks nailed on, but I reckon they go well past that number.

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Aston Villa to win @ 1.85 (Pinnacle) - main bet

Consider :
the Over 2.5 goals bet @ 2.00 ((Bet365)
or perhaps Both teams to score @ 1.80 (Bet365)
Also consider a bit of Over 3.5 goals @ 3.50 (Bet365)