Following their 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in the FA Cup fifth round on Sunday, Aston Villa will now face a fixture logjam.

The Villains find themselves in the Carling Cup final where they will take on Manchester United but four days prior, will take on Palace in the replay of this game, meaning manager Martin O'Neill will have to do some quick-thinking to come up with a plan to keep his players fresh, especially with the league match against Burnley on Sunday to navigate.

"We have to negotiate Burnley first of all next week. We'll see how we come out of that game. But Petrov did not risk life and limb to head the ball into the net for us to give it up easily," O'Neill said.

"It would have been great to have a spare week to prepare for the Carling Cup final. It's not going to happen. It's not ideal.

"I'm delighted to be in the cup but Crystal Palace will still have a big say in it.

"I thought Palace played with a lot of determination and spirit and I hoped we could respond to that. For the most part we did but we lost our way for a bit in the second half.

"But it is the FA Cup, a splendid competition and we'd love to stay in it. If we've got a bit of luck from the corner kick then I'll take that if that's the case."