Clarets Carling heroes out to defeat Houllier’s Villans

And for the third time the tie will be played on the week commencing October 25th.

Burnley boss Brian Laws believes the fixture is a worthy reward for his side’s commanding victory over Owen Coyle’s Bolton Wanderers last week.

Now, with Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Spurs among six other Premier League sides already being dumped out of the competition, Laws has his eyes set on causing another upset and claim a quarter-final place at the expense of Gerard Houllier’s Villans.

He said: “It’s a tough draw but we always knew we were going to come up against some quality opposition at some stage so if it’s this round it’s this round.

“If we’re going to progress in it this is the time and test we’ve got. We know Villa have a fantastic playing surface, great stadium and I’m sure it will be a great occasion so we’ll look forward to it.”

Villa’s first game under Houllier ended with Emile Hesky bagging a late winner away at Wolves on Sunday.

And Laws said that although his team will be going into the match as undoubted underdogs they will be looking to take the game straight to their Premier League opponents.

“There’s great belief in the camp and the players will look forward to it,” he said. “You’re playing in a fantastic stadium and we’ll be the underdogs so we’re going there and it’s not league points we’re playing for it’s the next round so we can take a little bit more risk.”

In 2004, under Steve Cotterill’s tenure, the Clarets knocked out Villa 3-1 courtesy of goals from Graham Branch, Mohammed Camara and Jean-Louis Valois. However, a year later, Villa had their revenge with a 1-0 win on home soil.

With Manchester United hosting Wolves, Newcastle United entertaining Arsenal and West Ham facing Stoke City, a minimum of three top flight teams will be exiting the competition at this next stage.

Laws has now identified the opportunity to go one better than when the Clarets fell in the dying seconds of their semi-final second leg tie against Spurs at Turf Moor in their Premier League promotion winning season.

He added: “I think that anybody will say that there will be a time when a Championship club does go all the way and eventually win it, the law of averages will tell you that.

“You see many teams now progressing even further because the Premier League teams sometimes do not take it as seriously or see it as a serious competition and they make a hell of a lot of changes. Will Villa do that? Well we’ll just see.”

The full Carling Cup fourth round draw;

Newcastle v Arsenal

Birmingham v Brentford

Wigan v Swansea

Aston Villa v Burnley

Leicester v West Brom

Man Utd v Wolves

West Ham v Stoke

Ipswich v Northampton