Aston Villa made it through to the fourth round of the Carling Cup after substitute Thomas Hitzlsperger scored with 15 minutes remaining.

His powerfully-struck drive finally broke the resistance of a radically revamped Leicester line-up at a rain-swept Villa Park.

The German Under-21 midfielder came off the bench to end a frustrating night for David O’Leary’s side with his first goal of the campaign.

It was only Villa’s second goal in five matches after O’Leary had made a pre-match plea for them to demonstrate more firepower.

City manager Micky Adams had promised to ring the changes after the second-half collapse at Wolves and the only survivor from
the weekend starting line-up was striker Paul Dickov.

There was still plenty of experience among the shadow squad on display - and also plenty of passion and commitment was evident as Leicester at least regained their pride after the Molineux misery.

Danny Coyne was the busier of the two keepers and he showed that he is more than a capable deputy for Ian Walker as he produced some fine saves.

The Foxes started lively and Brian Deane’s glancing header from a Craig Hignett cross was cleared by Ulises de la Cruz.
But Villa were soon surging forward and carved out a number of chances.

Villa went looking for the breakthrough at the start of the second period but Leicester continued to be a hard nut to crack.

Both sides made a simultaneous substitution as Craig Hignett and Vassell limped out of the action to be replaced by Keith Gillespie and Hitzlsperger respectively.

Hitzlsperger had an instant chance to break the deadlock but he screwed his left-footed shot from 18 yards out well wide while a shot on the turn from Angel flew straight at Coyne.

But Hitzlsperger made no mistake in the 76th minute when he latched onto a short pass from Barry and hammered a shot past the despairing dive through the air of Coyne.

Deane had a last gasp opportunity to force the game into extra-time but sent his header from an Andy Impey centre straight at Sorensen.