Carr drives Villa through Forest

FRANZ CARR put Aston Villa one stop away from another trip to Wembley with a stunning goal on his full debut in the English FA Cup quarter-final at the City Ground.

Carr, who walked out on Forest five years ago after a bust-up with former boss Brian Clough, struck a glorious 26th minute winner for a patched-up Villa side.

Brian Little's side then hung on with true grit in the second half to claim a semi-final date with either Liverpool or Leeds at Old Trafford on March 31 just seven days after their Coca-Cola Cup final with Leeds.

Carr, who has made only two brief substitute appearances since his £150,000 move from Leicester 14 months ago, was only in the side because of an injury and suspension list which deprived Villa of Gareth Southgate, Steve Staunton, Andy Townsend, Tommy Johnson and Lee Hendrie.

In a free role just behind the two strikers, Carr had wreaked major havoc on the ground of the club where he first made his name as a flying winger.

He buzzed around to find acres of space behind the Forest midfield and, along with Dwight Yorke, continually probed the soft underbelly of a Forest defence badly lacking the composure of England centre-back Colin Cooper.

Stop-gap defender Chris Bart-Williams battled manfully to stem the flow, but there was no stopping Carr when he unleashed a thundering drive from just outside the box, after Savo Milosevic had provided the final link in a necklace of passes with which Villa had again ripped apart Forest's reeling rearguard.