GOALFLASHES AND MAJOR INCIDENTS (all times GMT)
606: DEBATE
Your thoughts on the action
To get involved use 606 or text us your views & comments on 81111. (Not all contributions can be used)
By Caroline Cheese
BBC Sport’s Phil McNulty at Ewood Park: "Sam Allardyce has swept aside speculation that he is under pressure at Blackburn Rovers by insisting his only focus is reaching Wembley in the Carling Cup. Sparse crowd at the moment - I hope some more join us soon."1943: TEAM NEWS Blackburn v Aston Villa
**Blackburn **boss Sam Allardyce makes three changes from the 4-1 defeat by Man City on Monday. Nikola Kalinic, Michel Salgado and Pascal Chimbonda come into the side. Aston Villa haven’t played since knocking Rovers out of the FA Cup. Martin O’Neill brings back Richard Dunne, James Milner, Stiliyan Petrov and Gabriel Agbonlahor but Brad Guzan retains his place in goal, leaving ex-Blackburn keeper Brad Friedel sitting on the bench.1940: Now listen, naysayers, you may not agree that tonight’s game is going to be full of goals, but I’ve got a golden stat for you (courtesy of the magnificentoptajoe on Twitter: Blackburn have scored in 32 consecutive League Cup matches.1938: TEAMS Blackburn v Aston Villa
Blackburn: Robinson, Jacobsen, Samba, Nelsen, Chimbonda, Salgado, Emerton, Nzonzi, Pedersen, Dunn, Kalinic. Subs: Brown, McCarthy, Reid, Olsson, Hoilett, Di Santo, Jones.
Aston Villa: Guzan, Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Ashley Young, Milner, Petrov, Downing, Heskey, Agbonlahor. Subs: Friedel, Luke Young, Sidwell, Carew, Delph, Reo-Coker, Beye.1935: Bit of early team news from Ewood Park: Nikola Kalinic is preferred to Franco di Santo up front for Blackburn, with David Dunn playing in behind. Emile Heskey is in the Aston Villa team, with Brad Guzan in goal. More later.
1930: Lordy, what a dramatic day in football:Redknapp chargedwith tax evasion, Maradona easessome of his tax worries after one of his earrings is flogged,Torres surgerydeepens Liverpool crisis, Dunfermlinekicked out of the Scottish Cup.All this is a sure sign that tonight’s Carling Cup semi-final-first-leg-tie will be an absolute thriller. Isn’t it