Crewe's Neil Critchley and James Collins made no changes to their side sticking with their regular starting eleven but welcome back defenders Tom Lappin and Ben McHugh to the bench who make a return from injury.

Surrounded by the Premiership stance of Villa Park, Crewe's youngsters were ready for the challenge of facing a side sitting top of their League. With some good form behind them and wins over Ashton Town and Cambridge United in previous rounds of the FA Youth Cup, the challenge on a cold December evening was to over come a strong Aston Villa youth side for a place in Round Four against Colchester United.

Although, it took a while for the game to settle, just over 5 minutes into the game AJ Leitch-Smith sent Josh Thompson downfield with a great ball from the half way line but Villa's keeper took a bold move to run out of his goal and clear the ball into the stands. Villa fought back on the counter-attack, but some good defending from Ashley Westwood cleared the ball away from any danger. Minutes later Chris Clements also sent Thompson storming down the wing with a great opportunity, but a good tackle inside the box sent the ball for a corner. It proved a good move though as Ben Marshall put in a great ball and despite Villa's best efforts to clear the ball, an unmarked Leitch-Smith got on the end of it and sent it flying past keeper Elliott Parish. The visitors were 1-0 up within 12 minutes.

Villa were not put down and kept themselves in the game. Following the goal some good defending from Charlie Ager kept Crewe in the lead, but some good play from Villa's Nathan Delfouneso put the ball in a crowded box, and Andreas Weimann brought the home side level.

Chris Clements had a great chance to take back the lead when Villa's defender made what could have been a vital mistake just outside the box. Quick thinking Clements picked up the lose ball and tried his strike towards goal from 20 yards, but it went just wide of the post. Another chance fell just minutes later for Nathan Bancroft following another corner this time from Ben Marshall, but his close range header wasn't enough to beat the keeper. At this point in the game, Crewe were definitely playing on par with what were deemed the favourites to win this game.

Villa were awarded a penalty on 25 minutes as Jack Baker dived for the ball but it was Luke Danville's challenge that was penalised, and Barry Bannan coolly hit it past Baker to take the lead. Crewe were not downhearted though as Ashley Westwood hit a tremendous strike from 20 yards out that really required a good save from Villa's keeper to stop it from going in. A mistake from Bancroft at the other end of the pitch shortly after almost gave the home side another goal, but Weimann couldn't grab his second despite having only the keeper to beat.

Ten minutes from half time and despite taking the lead early on, Crewe's youth found themselves 3-1 down, Andreas Weimann grabbing his second of the game fooling Crewe's defence from inside the box. Baker's dive was not enough to prevent the strike going into the bottom corner. Just before the half time whistle blew, Baker did a great save as Villa sent the ball on target twice in succession. Penalty scorer Bannan threw the first effort but after Baker getting a touch to that ball, Nathan Delfouneso got on the rebound and Baker pulled off a fine save to keep the ball from crossing the line.

Minutes into the second half Weimann has another chance to make it a hat-trick for himself but his diving header hit the post and Jack Baker was quick to react to catch the rebounded ball. In the following minutes Luke Murphy had a great chance to close the gap after Clements put him forward with a fantastic ball and with only the keeper to beat inside the box Murphy's shot hit the body of the keeper, Matt Tootle picked up the rebounded ball but couldn't guide his effort on target. Crewe were really fighting against their opponents to climb back into the game.

It was a quiet second half, but Villa had ample opportunity to extend their lead but just couldn't finish the chances off cleanly enough as they took every attempt to shot on goal, even if it meant a long-range effort. As the final minutes of the game were approaching, Crewe pushed all the efforts up front but some great play from Luke Danville, Josh Thompson and later substitute Alex Titchener was not enough. Despite Crewe's best efforts they could not reclaim their early lead as Aston Villa booked their place in the next round at Colchester.

Teams:

Crewe: Jack Baker, Charlie Ager (Tom Lappin), Matt Tootle, Ashley Westwood, Nathan Bancroft, Luke Danville, Ben Marshall (Alex Titchener), Luke Murphy, Josh Thompson, AJ Leitch-Smith, Chris Clements

Subs: Alex Titchener, Daniel Platt, Matt Lund, Tom Lappin, Ben McHugh

Aston Villa: Elliott Parish, Sam Simmonds, Nathan Baker, Steven Clancy, Ciaran Clark, Harry Forrester (Daniel Bradley), Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan, Nathan Delfouneso, Andreas Weimann, Dominik Hofbauer (Will Grocott)

Subs: Will Ricketts, Matthew Roome, James Collins, Daniel Bradley, Will Grocott.