Aston Villa will have to break their March hoodoo to get over FA Cup opponents Reading.

Villa will have to win a game in March for the first time since 2005. It is a jinx which pre-dates manager Martin O'Neill's arrival at the club.

He joked: "We've only got 7,000 games in March so we will have an opportunity to alter that.

"Seriously, we've got four games in March at the moment and six in April. We asked the Premier League to stretch out the games for when the weather gets better in April.

"But the Premier League want to get the fixtures in during March - so we've got plenty of time to repent during April. There is no lee-way for us."