Villa cup exit was unlucky - O'Neill

Feb 16 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill thought Villa were unlucky and deserved something out of the game after his best claret and blue FA Cup run was ended at Everton.

The manager believed his team had enough chances to get back into the fifth-round tie at Goodison Park after recovering from the Toffees’ strong start.

But, ultimately, goals from Jack Rodwell, Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill were enough to defeat Villa, who had only James Milner’s penalty to show for their efforts.

“I thought we deserved something,” said O’Neill, whose side had never ventured beyond the third round under his management before this season.

“It was a frenetic start to the game. We were a goal behind after a few minutes, got the equaliser and were a goal behind again.

“I thought from then on, once the game settled down, we started to gain control. While it was a really tough encounter I thought, particularly second half, we had three great chances to equalise and we should have scored just before half-time.

“Perhaps the turning point might have been the great save by Tim Howard from John Carew.

“But that didn’t deter us, we kept going. The third goal was a killer goal from our viewpoint, but with 10 minutes to go there’s always the possibility of that. I think we were unlucky and should still be in the Cup.’’