Pressure all on Villa, says Ivar

06 March 2010 11:23
Martin O'Neill's side will start as favourites to move into the last four just seven days after they were beaten at Wembley in the Carling Cup final.[LNB]But Icelandic defender Ingimarsson believes that Villa will have a tough task against Brian McDermott's in-form side.[LNB]The Royals have battled against relegation from the Championship all season but have picked up form since McDermott replaced Brendan Rodgers at the helm in December and beat Sheffield Wednesday 5-0 last weekend.[LNB]They have already dumped Burnley and Liverpool out of the cup on their way to the last eight and Ingimarsson is in confident mood.[LNB]He told the Reading Evening Post: "If Villa win, then people will have expected them to, but if we win, it will be another cup upset.[LNB]"Right now we're a Championship club in the bottom half of the table, but at the same time we've also beaten Liverpool, Burnley and West Brom and fully deserve to be here.[LNB]"It will be the closest thing at the moment to playing in the Premier League when we had a full house for every home game.[LNB]"It's right to say that Villa will be under more pressure than us because they are a Premier League side that is pushing to finish in fourth place and get into Europe."[LNB]Last weekend's thrashing of the Owls lifted Reading to four points clear of the drop zone with 14 games left to play.[LNB]But Ingimarsson - a veteran of the Championship winning side of 2006 - knows the Royals are far from safe and will not allow their cup exploits to distract them from achieving safety.[LNB]He said: "For me and the club as a whole, the league is the thing that matters most.[LNB]"But the FA Cup has helped transform our league form and we want to go as far we can in that, as well as finishing as high up the table as possible."[LNB][LNB][LNB] Reading v Aston Villa. Click here to bet.  

Source: Team_Talk