Villa crash out as deadly Donny roll on

Doncaster 3 Aston Villa 0

Sean Thornton’s audacious long-range effort wrapped up an amazingly one-sided giant-killing act for the League One minnows.

Michael McIndoe set the home side on their way with a 19th-minute penalty before Paul Heffernan’s cool finish early in the second half had David O’Leary’s red-faced glamour boys desperately looking for a way out.

Villa hardly turned up on a bitterly cold Yorkshire night as more than 10,000 home fans packed inside Belle Vue celebrated the most famous victory in their club’s recent troubled history.

Having already dispatched of Manchester City via a second round penalty shoot-out Rovers had not for a moment looked like a side likely to be overawed by the occasion.

In the opening minutes McIndoe gave some warning of what was to come with some pacy work down the left flank as Rovers put Thomas Sorensen to work early with two quick corners.

McIndoe ought to have done better from Heffernan’s 16th minute through-ball when he shot tamely across the face of goal but he was to get his chance three minutes later.

Referee Mike Dean deemed Ridgewell had handled James Coppinger’s deflected right-wing cross and McIndoe calmly stepped up to fire to the left of Sorensen.

The expected Villa backlash did not materialise with Rovers looking much more likely to add a second.

Coppinger came desperately close to adding a second for Rovers in the 32nd minute but his goal-bound effort was blocked on the edge of the six-yard box by J lloyd Samuel.

Seconds later Mulligan’s attempt to block a shot by Barry almost resulted in an unfortunate own goal before Seremet scrambled back to grab the ball on the goal-line.

Rovers extended their lead in the 53rd minute when Mulligan’s punt forward was flicked on by Guy into the path of Heffernan, who burst into the box and fired home low to Sorensen’s right.

Predictably O’Leary responded by withdrawing the out-of-sorts Samuel and introducing a third striker in Kevin Phillips in a desperate bid to turn the tide.

But Rovers continued to dominate and were in such total control it would have been an embarrassment to a side of their League One rivals let alone Premiership stars who simply did not seem to fancy the job.

And former Sunderland midfielder Thornton completed an astonishingly one-sided rout with his audacious looping effort in the 79th minute which took a slight deflection off the unfortunate Ridgewell and dropped just under Sorensen’s bar.

DONCASTER: Seremet, Fenton, Stephen Roberts, Foster, Mulligan, Coppinger, Thornton, Ravenhill, McIndoe, Guy (Green 87), Heffernan.

ASTON VILLA: Sorensen, Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Samuel (Phillips 59), Milner, McCann, Davis, Barry, Angel, Baros.

Referee: M Dean (Cheshire)