Portsmouth 2-4 Aston Villa

Goals from England hopefuls Emile Heskey, James Milner, Stewart Downing and Ashley Young helped Aston Villa advance to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup at the expense of relegation-threatened Portsmouth.

Pompey's new manager Avram Grant was hoping for a home win to give his side some respite from their Premier League woes. But he is still looking for his first win after the bottom-of-the-table team's 4-1 defeat to Manchester United at the weekend was followed by 4-2 defeat tonight.

The visitors' manager Martin O'Neill gave £10 million summer signing Downing his first start in a Villa shirt. It was a debut which looked like being an unhappy one when his Bulgarian colleague Stilyan Petrov reacted to a poor Danny Webber corner by volleying the ball into his own net – 1-0 to Portsmouth with ten minutes gone.

Petrov's blushes were spared within two minutes after Heskey was put clear on goal. The England man coolly waited for Pompey stand-in keeper Asmir Begovic to make his dive before lifting the ball over him for only his second goal of the season. Were you watching Fabio Capello?

The England manager will also have been pleased to learn that Milner put Villa ahead in the 27th minute, receiving the ball from an Ashley Young throw-in and hitting a fierce curling shot past Begovic, who did not even dive for appearance's sake.

Portsmouth were by now being outclassed by their opponents but Nadir Belhadj did come close to getting a shot on target when he almost made amends for a terrible free kick by shooting purposefully from distance.

Boos from the near-capacity 17,000 crowd greeted the half-time whistle as some Portsmouth supporters rounded on a side which has played under four different managers in the last 13 months.

Current boss Grant's dressing room pep talk at least seemed to move Pompey up a gear as the game resumed.

Such was his players' new-found desperation to equalise that Anthony Vanden Borre was booked for a Tom Daley-style dive in the Villa penalty area.

The club's 2008 FA Cup final hero Kanu was brought on with 25 minutes left as Pompey looked to continue their quest for Carling Cup glory.

Having sprung the Villa offside trap the Nigerian's first touch, had it been better, might have been a scoring one, but the ball was tapped from his toes for a corner.

Villa's defence had to charge down a powerful shot from the rampaging Tal Ben Haim before victory seemed to be sealed in the 74th minute, Stewart Downing only needing to crane his neck slightly to head home Ashley Young's fine long-range cross.

Perhaps inspired by Villa's headed goal, Pompey launched their own aerial assault, substitute Frederic Piquionne jumping high to force a good save from Brad Guzan.

O'Neill's men could by now afford to take more chances, an audacious Ashley Young chip landing only just over the crossbar with the keeper beaten.

He might have wished he'd just smashed it when Kanu pulled a goal back with three minutes of normal time left, tapping the ball home from a free kick when within touching distance of Guzan.

Young made amends just before the start of injury time when his deflected shot could not be saved by Begovic, a goal which underlined his side's superior penetration and class over the course of the game.