Cup offers break from Villa boss search

At first glance, another match might seem the last thing a team who have lost their last six in the league needs.

It will at least provide a brief respite from the constant off-field conversation and a chance for Villa to reach the quarter-finals of a competition in which they have traditionally done very well.

That might be easier said than done, however, against a home team who have shaken off their own early season consistency and lost just one of the last eight.

Jordan Ayew, whose first goal for the claret and blues provided brief hope on Saturday before Swansea's fightback drove the final nail into the coffin of Sherwood's reign, reckons he and his team-mate need to discover a winning mentality.

"We are playing good football but we are not winning, it's tough," he said. "We have to find a solution. As players we have to be stronger to win games. We played well against Swansea but at the end it was zero points.

"We have played against teams who have played no better than us but we haven't been getting the results. We have to continue working hard now to pick up.

"No matter how we play, we have to win. We want to pick up victories and make the fans happy."

To start doing that, Villa must at the very least avoid anything like a repeat of their last trip to St Mary's Stadium back in May when Sadio Mane took just two minutes and 54 seconds to score the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history as Sherwood's men were routed 6-1.

It was the result which cast the first serious doubts over the manager's ability to resolve the club's long-term problems and, in hindsight, might come to be viewed as the beginning of the end as Villa won just two more matches under his watch.

Mane will be unable to pull off a repeat tonight as he is suspended following a red card in Sunday's 1-1 draw at Liverpool.

Saints boss Ronald Koeman is, however, likely to name a strong line-up as his team hunt a quarter-final place.

"It's always for the confidence better you win the game," said the Dutchman. "It is no different in my opinion. We like to go on in this tournament because we would like to win something.

"There are three competitions, the Premier League, the FA Cup

and the Capital One Cup – we take it seriously and the team which will start tomorrow will be a strong team.

"To win the game and have a strong team is always better than to reserve some players.

"The thinking for us is maybe a bit different to how it was last season because in my opinion the squad is stronger than it was."

Villa's team will be chosen by interim manager Kevin MacDonald, who finds himself in an all-too-familiar position, more than five years on from having carried out the same role following Martin O'Neill's infamous walkout.

A watershed moment in the Randy Lerner era, the club's fortunes have never been the same since.

MacDonald, a dedicated servants who knows he may well be replaced in the dugout by the time Monday's trip to Tottenham rolls around, will be determined to at least engineer a step back in the right direction.