Bristol Rovers 1 Aston Villa 3

Aston Villa booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a convincing victory over Bristol Rovers thanks to goals from Marc Albrighton, Gabby Agbonlahor, and Ciaran Clark.

Apart from a spell of late pressure the claret and blues were rarely troubled by the League Two on a difficult pitch at the Memorial Stadium and took the lead in the 35th minute when Albrighton slotted the ball through the legs of Rovers keeper Michael Poke.

Agbonlahor capitalised on a defensive mistake in the 64th minute to double the lead before Clark rounded off the scoring with a fine curling effort.

Rovers netted a consolation in the 90th minute when Scott McGleish lifted the ball over Brad Guzan although the home crowd were denied a dramatic climax to the game after the veteran striker missed a penalty moments later.

Villa boss Alex McLeish made three changes from the side which lost 2-0 to Swansea as he left Charles N'Zogbia and Agbonlahor on the bench with Emile Heskey and Albrighton recalled to the starting line-up.

Carlos Cuellar was ruled out with a thigh injury so Alan Hutton came into the team at right-back while Darren Bent, on the back of a week of speculation linking him with Liverpool, started up front in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Bristol Rovers had the first meaningful attempt on target in the sixth minute when Chris Zebroski's low drive from just outside the box was comfortably saved by Brad Guzan.

Villa slowly started to get to grips with the heavy surface and Stephen Warnock's searching ball almost released Bent but the striker was beaten to the ball by Rovers keeper Poke who came off his line to gather.

Poke was called into action again in the 23rd minute when Albrighton's corner picked out the head of Heskey inside the six-yard box but the Rovers custodian tipped the ball over the crossbar.

Villa started to grow in confidence as the first half wore on and took the lead 10 minutes before half-time when Stiliyan Petrov threaded a superb through-ball for Albrighton who fired the ball through the legs of Poke.

Albrighton was involved again moments later when his crossfield ball was dummied by Stephen Ireland which allowed Warnock to sneak up on the left edge of the box but he blazed his shot over the bar.

Zebroski continued to pose the biggest threat for the home side and kept Guzan on his toes with a testing long-range attempt shortly before the break.

Bristol Rovers began the second half positively and McGleish sliced a shot into the crowd when well placed after some neat build-up play.

But Villa scored the crucial second in the 64th minute when Agbonlahor, who replaced Heskey at half-time, caught Cian Bolger in possession and calmly side-footed a low shot into the corner past the despairing dive of Poke.

The home side responded with a spell of attacking play and Joe Anyinsah's low shot on the turn shortly afterwards whistled past Guzan's post.

But Clark seemed to have made the result safe when he picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box in the 78th minute and made use of the time and space afford to him by the Rovers defence to curl the ball into the bottom-left corner.

McGleish reduced the deficit when he took advantage of a mistake by Richard Dunne to calmly lift the ball over Guzan in added time.

The home crowd sensed there could have been some late drama when Warnock was harshly deemed to have handled inside the penalty area and referee Howard Webb pointed to the spot but McGleish saw his injury time spot-kick saved by Guzan.