Ekoku's fine drive puts paid to Villa

Aston Villa 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1

The Worthington Cup lost one of its more obvious potential winners last night as Aston Villa squandered the chance of reaching the quarter-finals by losing to a side who had been in the bottom three of the First Division as recently as last Saturday morning.

Although Dion Dublin passed up three chances in the second half to mark his recall with a goal ­ each time heading wide from Steve Stone's crosses ­ Wednesday played well enough to deserve some measure of good fortune and Efan Ekoku's first-half goal proved enough to land their second Premiership scalp after putting out Sunderland in the second round.

Two of Dublin's misses came in a frenzied last five minutes as the Yorkshire side packed almost all their players into the penalty area. "We rode our luck a bit but blood and guts and determination got us through in the end," a delighted Wednesday manager, Terry Yorath, said.

John Gregory, the Villa manager, declared himself to be "hugely embarrassed" by a result that represents a setback in Villa's season to rank alongside their first-round exit to Varteks in the Uefa Cup in September. Gregory blamed fringe players for not taking their opportunity, although it was he who made five changes from the side that drew 1-1 at Leeds in the Premiership last Sunday.

While the replacements were hardly drawn from remote parts of his squad it did seem to reflect a slightly curious attitude, given that a competition that seemed well within Villa's compass offers a direct route into Europe. Perhaps Gregory likes the Intertoto Cup, despite last summer's grumbling.

The changes included a first start in domestic competition for Bosko Balaban, the Croatian striker for whom Gregory paid £6m to Dinamo Zagreb in August but had been given an even longer settling-in period than the £10m Juan Pablo Angel. He clearly has some talent, as was demonstrated by the first-half header that produced the save of the night from Kevin Pressman, although he was taken off after just over an hour in a night of collective failure by Villa's attack.

The home side fell behind five minutes before the interval after Ekoku ­ sent on as a substitute following a shoulder injury to Alan Quinn ­ scored his second goal in two games since a two-month lay-off with a knee injury. Ekoku raced on to Simon Donnelly's flicked pass and outpaced the Villa centre-back Alpay Ozalan before firing past Peter Schmeichel from 12 yards.

Gregory took the opportunity to try a different tack by bringing on David Ginola for the second half, only the fifth time the Frenchman has been used in domestic competition this season, although the effect was negligible.

Dublin should have put Villa level rather than direct his header wide of Pressman's right-hand post after Stone had delivered an excellent cross from the right. To Gregory's frustration, it was a picture he was to witness twice more as Villa failed to test Pressman for all their possession.

Aston Villa (3-5-2): Schmeichel; Mellberg, Alpay, Staunton; Stone, Hadji (Boateng, 40), Taylor (Ginola, h-t), Hendrie, Kachloul; Balaban (Vassell, 63), Dublin. Substitutes not used: Enckelman (gk), Barry.

Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Pressman; Geary, Maddix, Bromby, O'Donnell; Quinn (Ekoku, 28), Haslam, Soltvedt, Morrison (McLaren, 53); Sibon (Westwood, 81) Donnelly. Substitutes not used: Bonvin, Stringer (gk).

Referee: C Wilkes (Gloucester).