SO NEAR and yet so far. In the 88th minute Martin Woods shivered the crossbar for the second time in the match, with Brad Friedel beaten. And so Doncaster Rovers, from the Championship’s bottom three, must replay at Villa Park in 10 days’ time, when the Champions League hopefuls will be odds-on favourites.

Sean O’Driscoll, the Rovers manager, wore a hangdog expression afterwards and the unavoidable impression was that they had missed their chance. Had either of Woods’ shots from distance gone in, they would have had all the headlines with the upset of the FA Cup’s fourth round. Instead, they must travel to play opponents who lie fourth in the Premier League and who will be reinforced by the return of Ashley Young, who was serving a suspension that will have expired by the time the sides meet again. Emile Heskey, missing because the paperwork of his £3.5m transfer from Wigan had still to be completed, will be unavailable again, because a player who is ineligible for the original fixture can’t play in a replay.

Truth be told, Villa should have done the job at the first time of asking. Woods’ two strikes were Doncaster’s only decent goal attempts, while at the other end their veteran goalkeeper, Neil Sullivan, was the man of the match, rolling back the years with some top-notch saves, notably to deny Gabriel Agbonlahor and James Milner. Like Woods, England’s Agbonlahor also rattled the bar: with Sullivan at his mercy, he drilled the ball against the framework from near the penalty spot.

It was nearly a memorable cup tie — nearly but not quite. Both teams applied themselves with due diligence but the passing game they have in common was undermined by a muddy, uneven surface; and, strangely, a stadium that accommodates only 15,000 was not full, which did nothing for the atmosphere. Observers were left with the feeling that the participants had other priorities.

Villa’s is undoubtedly to secure the position they occupy in the league, and thereby qualify for the cash cow that is Champions League football. Martin O’Neill, their manager, confirmed as much when he spoke straight after the game of the “importance” of their visit to Portsmouth on Tuesday.

Doncaster’s principal objective is to avoid relegation from the Championship, to which end they have won their past three league matches, to climb off the foot of the table. The romance of the Cup certainly escaped O’Driscoll when he said: “We could have done without the replay, to be honest. We’re third-bottom in the Championship and we’ve got Sheffield United on Tuesday night. We have to make sure the Cup doesn’t detract from our performance in the league.”

Three years ago Rovers’ 3-0 drubbing of Villa played a significant part in the subsequent departure of David O’Leary as manager. The Yorkshire club have improved since, but not as much as Villa, who are unlikely to suffer similar embarrassments under O’Neill. Organised and combative, Villa lacked only a cutting edge, which explains their interest in signing Michael Owen when his contract expires at the end of the season. The tone was set early, when Agbonlahor and Gareth Roberts fired wastefully wide. In an otherwise prosaic first half, Sullivan distinguished himself for the first time with a reaction save from Agbonlahor at close range, while Woods struck the bar from 20 yards with a shot from the inside-left channel.

If Doncaster were marginally the better team in the first half, Villa took over in the second, when Sullivan thwarted Milner and Gareth Barry, while Agbonlahor and Steve Sidwell were profligate from close in. That said, Woods was an inch or two away from winning it from 25 yards late on.

“Doncaster impressed me,” O’Neill said. “They are a fine footballing side and must be surprised by where they are in the table. The replay is another game for us. They are mounting up at the moment and Nigel Reo-Coker has problems with a hamstring as a result of that. But it’s the FA Cup and I’m delighted still to be in it. I would hope the advantage has switched to us now but I will still be wary.”

DONCASTER ROVERS: Sullivan 8, O’Connor 6, Mills 7, Hird 6, Roberts 6, Woods 7, Stock 7, Wellens 6, Coppinger 6 (Price 76min), Guy 5 (Heffernan 76min), Spicer 5 (Lockwood 89min)

ASTON VILLA: Friedel 6, Davies 7, Cuellar 6, Knight 7, Reo-Coker 6 (Gardner 69min), Sidwell 6, Petrov 5, Barry 7, Shorey 5, Milner 6, Agbonlahor 6

FA TO LOOK AT REPLAY RULE

The Football Association announced yesterday that they will be looking into a long-standing FA Cup rule that could do away with replays and allow the two sides to agree on extra time in the first match as long as they informed the FA and referee well in advance. Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, last night denied that he planned on invoking Rule 11a. ‘There was never any possibility of us asking not to have a replay,’ he said. Aston Villa and Doncaster, who will replay, faced each other five times in the fourth round in 1955, including a third replay, at Hillsborough, which had to be abandoned after 90 minutes at 0-0 because of bad light. Doncaster finally won the tie 3-1

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