Houllier’s much rotated side ensured their place in the draw for the 5th round of the FA Cup thanks to goals from Ciaran Clark, Robert Pires and Nathan Delfouneso, but were forced to see out just under 30 minutes with 10 men after Nathan Baker was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on David Hoilett.

If you weren’t at Villa Park, you didn’t see this game live, and that includes me, so I’ll just briefly describe what I read and heard from multiple sources during the course of the game.

Villa started extremely positively, Barry Bannan going close inside the first minute from just outside the box, Emile Heskey having a close range effort blocked four minutes later.

Ciaran Clark opened the scoring with his 4th goal of the season, heading Bannan’s corner into the top left corner, but Nikola Kalinic – on in place of Roque Santa Cruz who was forced off after 10 minutes – restored the status quo by finishing Michel Salgado’s cross.

Robert Pires silenced his critics with his first goal for Aston Villa in the 35th minute, finishing Nathan Baker’s cross with his right foot. The other Nathan, Delfouneso, made it 3-1 three minutes before the break, heading in another Nathan Baker cross from close range.

Stewart Downing replaced Gabby for the 2nd half, but Houllier was forced to bring on James Collins for Robert Pires after Baker’s dismissal. Clark pushed out to left back after Downing had held the fort until the switch was made.

Marc Albrighton came on for the final 18 minutes in place of Delfouneso to see out a much quieter 2nd period, although there were a flurry of late efforts, Downing forcing a couple of saves from Paul Robinson.

In the end, it sounded like a reasonably comfortable, assured performance with some fine attacking football. The players who came in, particularly Barry Bannan, will continue to give Houllier some selection headaches. Which is always the best headache to have of course.

The most important thing is that we’re still in the FA Cup and can now look forward to Tuesday’s trip to Old Trafford on the back of three wins on the bounce.

Aston Villa starting XI: Friedel, Walker, Clark, Cuellar, Baker, Reo-Coker, Bannan, Pires, Agbonlahor, Delfouneso, Heskey. Subs: Marshall, Collins, Delph, Petrov, Albrighton, A Young, Downing.
Blackburn starting XI: Robinson, Salgado, Hanley, Olsson, Samba, Pedersen, Andrews, Nzonzi, Hoillet, Santa Cruz, Roberts. Subs: Bunn, Jones, Kalinic, EH Diouf, Grella, Benjani, Lowe.