Matt Maher: The FA Cup offers opportunity to Wolves, West Brom and Aston Villa

Supporters who have paid discounted ticket prices to attend what is being marketed as the club’s official “Heritage Game” will be able to buy “throwback” food and drink items which, while not quite as cheap as they were 30 years ago, are still lower in cost than their modern day equivalents.

Which is all well and good, except come the end of the season all Villa fans really want is to party like it’s 1996.

That, of course, is the last time their club won a major trophy. Ending a drought which will next month tick beyond the three-decade mark is among the primary targets of Unai Emery’s team this year, with Saturday’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Newcastle potentially another step along the road.

All the more surprising, then, to find a decent-sized portion of the fanbase suggesting their manager, to borrow a modern football phrase, “play the kids” and effectively write-off this year’s competition.

The argument is, with Villa still fighting for a top-four Premier League finish and also targeting glory in the Europa League, a Cup-run might risk stretching too far a squad hit hard by injuries since last month’s third round victory at Tottenham.

There’s undoubtedly some logic involved. It’s true the Cup, with no Champions League place to offer its winners, is by some distance the least lucrative of Villa’s goals. That’s why Emery has always been honest in ranking it third on his list of priorities.