Dion Dublin scored twice as Aston Villa cruised past Luton Town and into the third round of the Worthington Cup.

Villa boss Graham Taylor played his strongest team and his side dominated proceedings from start to finish.

Luton, who battled hard throughout, had the first half-chance of the game when Chris Coyne went close with a low drive following a corner from Peter Holmes.

But Villa were soon in the ascendancy and just about their first worthwhile attack produced the opening goal after nine minutes from Ulises de la Cruz.

Jlloyd Samuel crossed from the left flank and Gareth Barry turned the ball into the path of de la Cruz, who made no mistake from close range.

Villa doubled their lead after 25 minutes through Dublin, who was again preferred to Peter Crouch and Marcus Allback as Darius Vassell’s strike partner.

Dublin connected with a Lee Hendrie free kick and headed home from six yards out.

Luton’s hopes of staging a second half revival were effectively killed off within three minutes of the restart through a fine second goal from Dublin.

Luton substitute Ian Hillier cleared the ball out of the danger area but it quickly came back to Dublin, who controlled on his chest before sending a low volley past the despairing dive of Carl Emberson.

Dublin was causing all sorts of problems and he thought he had completed his hat-trick after 57 minutes when he scored from close range after a Hendrie shot had been parried by Emberson into his path.

But his celebrations in front of the Holte End were cut short as he was adjudged to have been marginally offside.

Villa substitute Oyvind Leonhardsen then came close to registering his first goal for the club when his far post effort hit the post after he had got on the end of a de la Cruz cross.