It was the biggest man in the dressing room who took the plaudits for the remarkable quarter-final turnaround which keeps Villa on course for the FA Cup final.

But the real hero was the smallest.

Martin O’Neill’s ability to reach into the minds of his players and find the switches that inspire them has long been a source of wonder and speculation.

Just how the slight, bespectacled, 5ft 5in O’Neill commands such presence in the company of his muscular millionaires is still a mystery.

But whatever it is he does continues to be the greatest asset to a Villa team now booked for a return to Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals following the most dramatic of the weekend’s quarter-finals.

Sluggish, perhaps a little complacent, maybe mentally tired, the claret and blues were over-run by Championship outfit Reading for the first half at the Madejski Stadium and shipped two goals.

As powerless as they were before the break, they were electric afterwards, scoring 70 seconds after the re-start through Ashley Young before John Carew, all 6ft 4in of him, destroyed Brian McDermott’s commendable young team with a hat-trick.

If a little of the steam was taken out of the thrilling comeback by Villa then drawing Chelsea for the semis, no matter. The re-run of that damp squib of a 2000 final can wait for later.

Claret and blue fans will instead build up to the game ready to pin their faith on O’Neill’s enduring ability to have such a direct impact on the pitch from his position off it – and hope it can de-rail the Premier League leaders too.

His merits for membership of the game’s elite corps of managers remains the subject of debate with critics still questioning a style of play too one-dimensional for some.

While this victory swiftly returns Villa to Wembley after their Carling Cup final disappointment, it also follows the latest accounts which confirms the club’s return to prominence has come at the not-inconsiderable cost of £179m to Randy Lerner.

But no-one can doubt that O’Neill has qualities that elude many others and this was merely one more act in a career of dramatics to confirm age has not dimmed his repertoire in man management.

Boy, did he need to rescue Villa yesterday. For all the injustice the squad is carrying from that final with Manchester United, for all the focus and determination, for all the confidence their superior player roster should have given them, they just could not get going.

From the moment James Collins fluffed a clearance in the opening seconds and conceded a clumsy free-kick in trying to retrieve the error, Villa were unsettled, unsure and unimpressive. “Meek,” was O’Neill’s description and Reading were in no mood to be mild.

Shane Long, who had done so much to inspire their memorable victory at Anfield earlier in the competition, scored two simply-taken goals the first of which hoisted Villa on their own petard as he pounced from a 27th minute set piece.

Defender Matt Mills, who was all over Carew and Emile Heskey in his principle defensive duties, got above Richard Dunne and headed on a corner Long was unmarked to help on past Brad Friedel.

Reading’s delighted supporters then must have thought Wembley beckoned when, three minutes before half time, Gylfi Sigurdsson set Jimmy Kebe free with a terrific, weighted pass inside Stephen Warnock.

Kebe’s composed pull-back defeated Villa’s defenders for Long to stroke an impressive second. No-one could argue Reading were full value their lead.

More than 4,000 travelling fans were stunned. So were O’Neill’s players while ITV’s cameras lapped up a potential upset which even their calamity-strewn coverage of the FA Cup in the last couple of years could not cock-up.

We might have to wait for someone’s book before the detail of whatever was said in the visitors dressing room is known but the effect on the Premier League outfit was startling.

Perhaps the most important strike of all was the first coming as it did less than two minutes after the re-start and carrying the double whammy of further enlivening Villa while shaking Reading’s confidence.

Carew had started the match only because of illness to Gabby Agbonlahor and had spent the first half confirming why O’Neill has pretty much run out of faith in this most enigmatic of strikers.

But collecting Stewart Downing’s service, he flipped the ball across Reading’s back-line where it eventually reached Ashley Young for an unhesitating finish at the back post.

What said more about the change of mood, however, was that the ball was initially helped on by full back Carlos Cuellar who had barely got beyond the half-way line before the break. This was, indeed, a very different Villa with which Reading now had to cope.

Villa at their best are all about crosses of searching quality flying across the eye-line of opposition defences, a quality that had been missing earlier. Now it returned with a vengence, Downing producing an absolute pearler in the 51st minute which Carew could not help but head home.

Six minutes later and the lead was their’s. Once more delivery from the flanks, this time by the over-lapping Warnock, and once more a finish Carew showing a deft, angled finish to defeat Adam Federici.

The game had been turned in 12 minutes by the “top end” of O’Neill’s team. Carew’s goals and the threat of Downing and Young’s crosses were supported by the industry of Stiliyan Petrov, James Milner and the redoubtable Heskey.

England’s striker could have put the game to bed long before the end had he not reminded everyone of his one weakness – a lack of finishing quality – when breaking through for a one-on-one which Frederici won shortly after.

But at the back, there were still uncertainties to encourage Reading and Villa had to survive some testing moments before they secured their passage, Young heading an Ivar Ingimarsson header off the line and Warnock throwing himself in front of a Kebe shot to block another opportunity.

But as added time began, Carew induced a trip from Ingimarsson in the thick of the area and under the nose of referee Mike Dean. The penalty was slammed away with a conviction which triggered ecstatic celebrations from Villa fans after their roller-coaster ride and added yet another chapter to the popular Norwegian’s folk idol status with supporters.

By the real hero of the hour merely allowed himself a punch of the fist and that trademark skip in the technical area. O’Neill had worked his magic again and the destiny of this season surely rests on how much more he has left up his sleeve.