Aston Villa...1 Blackburn...4It was a fairy tale all right, though not of the traditional Cup variety in which minnows slay giants. Two goals for Matt Jansen, having only his second start since a horrific holiday accident last summer in Rome, was the stuff of dreams.
There were fears as recently as the autumn that the former England Under-21 forward would not be capable of walking properly, let alone heading a football, after his moped collided with a car.
"In my darkest moments I must admit I had a big question mark over myself," he said after opening the scoring with a well-taken left-foot volley, then doubling up on the hour with a close-range header.
"When I came back from Italy I had a little bit of a problem with my co-ordination.
"I was also a little bit off balance at times and for the first four or five weeks I had people helping me at home.
"It has been difficult just getting 'natural' again and re-learning parts of the game.
"I couldn't head a ball until October and I had to get used to playing again and doing the most mundane things. It's all been part and parcel of coming back, and it's been a long road.
"I did question whether I would ever get back and I don't really know what my lowest point was. Getting beaten by my girlfriend Lucy at table tennis wasn't easy to take.
"But behind closed doors there have been times when I was bawling my eyes out."
It would be good to report there was not a dry eye in a barely half-full house when Jansen took such a huge step towards his complete rehabilitation but, as Dwight Yorke discovered, most inside Villa Park had no room for sentiment.
Yorke, a former Holte End hero before moving to Manchester United in 1998 after nine years with Villa, also played his part in inflicting Cup humilitation on his old club.
Predictably booed every time he touched the ball, Yorke cancelled out Juan Pablo Angel's lucky 41st- minute equaliser before delivering the most emphatic of parting shots prior to his substitution by sliding home the fourth goal.
That Yorke began in central midfield and there was no place in the 16 for Andy Cole suggests the League rather than FA Cup is top of this season's knockout competition priorities for the Rovers manager Graeme Souness.
Rovers, the holders, meet Manchester United in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final tomorrow at Old Trafford, and Cole and Yorke will be back in harness.
ASTON VILLA: Postma, Edwards (Ridgewell 69), Samuel, Mellberg, Wright, De la Cruz, Hendrie, Kinsella (Taylor 63), Barry, Angel (Vassell 63), Dublin. Subs Not Used: Hitzlsperger, Henderson. Goals: Angel 41.
BLACKBURN: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Taylor, McEveley, Danns (Tugay 45), Flitcroft, Yorke (Douglas 74), Dunn, Ostenstad (Gillespie 45), Jansen. Subs Not Used: Kelly, Johansson. Goals: Jansen 17, Yorke 52, Jansen 60, Yorke 71.
Referee: J Winter (Cleveland)
