Villa manager Martin O’Neill has saluted his players’ commitment to the claret and blue cause after they kept dreams of a Wembley double alive.

Two late penalties from John Carew were enough to prevent extra-time and see off Crystal Palace 3-1 in last night’s FA Cup replay at Villa Park to earn a quarter-final showdown with Reading, after they denied Albion a last-eight derby duel.

O’Neill named a strong line-up despite Sunday’s Carling Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley being just four days away, but the Villa boss was full of praise for his team’s refusal to shirk any challenges despite the risk of an injury which could have jeopardised their chances of playing this weekend.

The manager said: “I’m naturally delighted for the club but more genuinely pleased for the players. After Sunday against Burnley, people were wondering what sort of side we would put out.

“All the players were prepared to go for it and I didn’t see one shirking anything at all in preparation for Sunday. That speaks volumes for the team.

“I am really pleased with the team. It is showing some fantastic ability and they are improving which is great. They have great commitment.

“We deserved to win the game although we left it very late.”

A win over Championship strugglers Reading would guarantee Villa a second Wembley date this term, with both FA Cup semi-finals being held at the national stadium.

Brad Guzan, Luke Young, Fabian Delph – who replaced virus victim Stiliyan Petrov – and Carew were the only new faces from the side which beat Burnley and O’Neill insisted it was necessary to put winning the fifth-round clash against the Eagles ahead of the risk of injury.

He added: “We have lots of things to improve on but the commitment is there in abundance. We went very strongly, only made a couple of changes and I think the way Palace played in the second half. showed we had to do that.

“The players were prepared to take the risk.  We needed to do so and there are one or two in the dressing room with knocks, I just stayed in there a little bit longer to see how they were.

“We will have a better idea of them later today. It is a really big week.”