FA Cup: Aston Villa vs West Bromwich Albion match preview

A look ahead to this weekend's FA Cup quarter-final at Villa Park

Villa manager Tim Sherwood has reason to celebrate as his side's victory was his first since taking over (Getty Images)

Villa Park will play host once again as these two sides meet for the second time in five days after Aston Villa beat West Brom 2-1 in the Premier League.

Tim Sherwood claimed his first victory since taking over as Aston Villa manager and West Brom suffered only their second defeat to their rivals in nine encounters.

The last time these two met in the FA Cup was back in 1998 when Aston Villa thrashed West Brom 4-0. The visitors gave West Ham United a similar thrashing in the last round of this year’s FA Cup as well as delivering a seven-goal thriller against Gateshead back in January. West Brom have been no strangers to scoring in this season’s competition, boasting the best goal difference (13 GF, 1 GA) and scoring the joint highest number of goals (13) compared to the other teams left in the quarter-finals.

Aston Villa’s goal tally has been far from impressive all season and they haven’t done much better in the FA Cup, only winning their three FA Cup games by a one-goal margin. However, their cup record against West Brom is far more favourable. They haven’t lost to their rivals in the FA Cup since 1925 and they’ve only ever been defeated by West Brom three times in the FA Cup out of 15 encounters (W9, D3, and L3.)

After Tuesday’s victory, Tim Sherwood’s side will be full of confidence and though their league encounters don’t favour the home-side, the FA Cup history between the two teams certainly does. Aston Villa haven’t been in an FA Cup semi-final for five years and West Brom haven’t reached that stage since 2008 so both teams will certainly be putting their all into this weekend’s derby.

KICK-OFF: Saturday, 5.30pm

PAST THREE MEETINGS…

Aston Villa 2 (Agbonlahor, Benteke) 1 West Bromwich Albion (Berahino), Premier League, March 2015

West Bromwich Albion 1 (Gardner) 0 Aston Villa, Premier League, December 2014

Aston Villa 4 (Weimann, Bacuna, Delph, Benteke) 3 West Bromwich Albion (Brunt, Delph OG, Mulumbu), Premier League, January 2014

STATS…

In 15 FA Cup encounters, West Bromwich Albion have failed to keep a clean sheet in 12 of those games.

Agbonlahor ended a run of 14 league games without scoring when he netted against West Brom in the mid-week derby. It was only his 4th goal in the Premier League this season and he is still yet to score in this FA Cup campaign.

The last time Aston Villa reached the semi-finals was in 2010 against Chelsea when they lost 3-0. West Brom last reached the semi-finals in 2008 and they also lost 1-0 to Portsmouth.

In the 1892 FA Cup final West Bromwich Albion beat Aston Villa 3-0. It was the first final in which goal nets were used.

The last time Albion and Villa played more than two games against each other in the same season was back in 1985/86. Villa emerged from those games unbeaten.

ODDS…

Aston Villa to win the FA Cup: 14/1

West Bromwich Albion to win the FA Cup: 12/1

TV: BBC One, 5.30pm.