Penalty-stopper supreme Brad Guzan today dedicated Villa’s thrilling Carling Cup success at Sunderland to the club’s travelling support.

Guzan was the hero at the Stadium of Light last night with four penalty saves – one in normal time and three in the shoot-out after the scores had remained goalless – as Villa moved into the quarter-finals.

Martin O’Neill’s men were roared on by over 2,000 travelling claret and blue fans, most of whom made the 400-mile round trip on the 34 free coaches provided by the club.

USA international Guzan made the crucial saves in front of the away end and praised fans for making it “feel like a home game”.

“They were fantastic to travel all this way to support us,” he said.

“When you’re playing away in these cup games it can be sometimes difficult to play on the road and I thought they really made us feel at home.

“It was good to give them the result for travelling all that way. I think that was the least we could do after the amount of travelling they had to do.”

Guzan turned away, bent down on one knee and covered his face for each of Villa’s penalties and revealed it was simply to concentrate.

“You have to stay focused and get yourself in the zone,” he continued. You’re not worrying about what our guys are doing because the crowd will let you know.

“You can’t really go wrong as a goalkeeper unless you let one go through your hands or something like that. Luckily it went my way last night.

“Have I ever played better? I don’t think I’ve ever saved four penalties that’s for sure.”

And the keeper insists Villa have their eyes on Wembley after moving to within two rounds of a trip to the capital. He added: “Any time you’re in a cup competition you want to be playing in finals. You want to be winning trophies. To be able to put ourselves into the next round and give us that opportunity is fantastic.”

Stephen Warnock is a doubt for Saturday’s Everton trip after picking up a knock. O’Neill said: “There are a lot of knocks and bruises. I think Stephen Warnock might be a doubt. I should have a better idea later today.”