Dublin the difference as Villa fail to convince

Aston Villa 1 Reading

The last time Reading beat Aston Villa, the Titanic had just sunk and Barnsley held the FA Cup. Facing Villa again 89 years later as a middling Second Division side, they had enough of the second half to repeat the feat in last night's Worthington Cup tie but could not cancel out Dion Dublin's third goal of the season.

Dublin, who had replaced Mark Delaney after the right-back suffered a neck injury which proved less serious than it originally appeared, struck from close range late in the first half. Hard as Reading strove, they could not add to the claret-and-blue collection they started by knocking out West Ham. The Villa manager, John Gregory, called his team's performance "poor", yet they will be in Saturday's fourth-round draw.

Gregory said afterwards: "I was frustrated by that display. We had a lack of fluency while Reading played above themselves. But ultimately it's about results and we managed to scramble through."

Gregory had paid Reading the compliment of fielding, with one exception, the team who beat Blackburn to preserve an unbeaten Premiership record 10 days earlier. The injured Darius Vassell's place in attack went to David Ginola, yet events soon conspired to force a second adjustment.

After 25 minutes of sparring, Delaney and the Trinidadian winger Tony Rougier continued a duel which had already led to Reading being refused a penalty. As they tumbled, Rougier's knee accidentally thudded into Delaney's neck. The Welshman was carried off after being treated for five minutes.

Villa were almost caught out on the break after 36 minutes, the former Birmingham player Nicky Forster shrugging off Alan Wright to fire wide of the far post. But halfway through the six minutes' stoppage time, Ginola's corner was prodded back from the far post by Hassan Kachloul into the six-yard area and Dublin scored with a sharp header.

The change in personnel was beneficial to Villa at first, Dublin's sheer physicality and prowess as a target man making Juan Pablo Angel look less isolated. Ginola returned to his natural milieu on the left touchline, from where, shortly before the breakthrough, he had embarked on a vintage jinking run that was stopped only by a last-ditch block by Adrian Viveash.

Reading had a numerical advantage in midfield even before Villa effectively went to a three up front, and around the hour mark they threatened an equaliser twice in rapid succession. Peter Schmeichel had to be quick off his line to smother the ball as the ex-Villa trainee Martin Butler closed in. Almost immediately, Schmeichel had to tip over Neil Smith's glancing header after a centre whipped in by James Harper.

Playing towards their 4,000 followers, Reading sensed Villa were content to rest on their lead and increased the pressure. Forster, on the right wing, outwitted Wright more than once without delivering a telling pass. Even so, Schmeichel, the home captain, became typically irate with his colleagues, never more so than when, in the prelude to a fraught final 20 minutes, Steve Staunton cleared off the line from Butler.

Aston Villa (4-4-2): Schmeichel; Delaney (Dublin, 30), Alpay, Staunton, Wright; Hadji, Boateng, Hendrie, Kachloul; Angel (Balaban, 88), Ginola. Substitutes not used: Dublin, Barry, Cooke, Enckelman (gk).

Reading (4-5-1): Whitehead; Whitbread (Cureton, 81), Williams, Viveash, Shorey; Forster, N Smith, Parkinson (Henderson, 71), Harper, Rougier (Robinson, 81); Butler. Substitutes not used: Casper, Ashdown (gk).

Referee: M Messias (York).