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It was harsh on a much-changed Burnley team. Martin Paterson and Michael Duff certainly deserve special mention amongst the fringe players who were given a chance. When asked to pull on the Burnley shirt neither will let you down.
The possibility of extra time had looked unlikely once Emile Heskey had put the hosts ahead with just four minutes of normal time left, but Clarke Carlisle popped up at the back post to head an equaliser with just seconds of the 90 minutes remaining.
Carlisle was one of six changes made to the Clarets line-up, Brian Laws bringing in Duff, Graham Alexander, Paterson, Ross Wallace and Lee Grant as he kept one eye on the trip to QPR on Saturday.
Despite resting several of his stars, Gerard Houllier was still able to call on the considerable talents of Stephen Ireland, Ashley Young, Brad Friedel and Marc Albrighton in his starting line-up.
Had one or two of those Villa stars shown a fraction more composure then Villa could have been ahead early as their neat approach play just lacked a killer final ball.
It took almost 25 minutes for the first chance to arrive, and it drew an astonishing double save from Grant.
As Ashley Young squared across the box it looked for all the world that Nigel Reo-Coker would slam the ball home from six yards, instead his effort was somehow repelled by the sprawling Grant. The save alone was of the highest quality, but the former Sheffield Wednesday stopper managed to get himself off the floor and deflect Barry Bannan's goal-bound follow up wide of the post as well.
If the first half had been without good chances for the Clarets then the second half was a different proposition. Martin Paterson, who gave the type of performance that has made him a cult hero among Burnley fans, fired just wide of goal five minutes after the break before calling Friedel into serious action minutes later. The Northern Ireland international's stinging effort was well saved by the American who then did well to scramble across goal and keep out Jay Rodriguez's headed rebound.
After years of frustrating us by single-handedly keeping Blackburn in the Premier League, Friedel was now taking upon himself to frustrate us further.
I'll hold my hands up and admit that I'm still sceptical about just how good Rodriguez can be, but in the second half he was involved in a lot of the good things we did and was absolutely exceptional in the air.
In some respects Downing can consider himself fortunate to be the match winner after an awful miss in the closing stages of the second half. Released down the Villa right, Downing had time and space to run clear of the Burnley defence and manoeuvre the ball onto his favoured left foot, only to curl his shot miles wide of the right hand post.
Substitute Emile Heskey then looked to have spared his teammate's blushes when he netted in the final five minutes.
Danny Fox was caught out by a bouncing ball on the halfway line and Duff's challenge was not enough to stop Albrighton from prodding the ball down the right wing for Ashley Young. The flying winger squared for Heskey who out muscled Tyrone Mears eight yards out and got to the ball first to poke the ball home.
Quite why Ashley Young turned and celebrated in front of the visiting supporters is anybody's guess, his childish 'whipping up' of the home fans was unnecessary, does scoring a late goal against a side from the division below really mean that much to you Ashley?
Thankfully Young's gestures were made to look even sillier minutes later. Heskey clumsily fouled an advancing Mears down the right, and Graham Alexander's quick free kick found Ross Wallace in space out wide. The diminutive winger, frustrating on the night, flicked the ball into the box where Carlisle got above everybody to head his side level off the bottom of the far post.
It was just reward for gutsy performance in a game that at no point had felt like it was Premier League vs Championship.
So after an enjoyable 90 minutes we were given an extra 30, sadly the hosts seemed to have more in the tank for the added period.
Downing was afforded too much time and space to make his way from the left wing to the inside right channel, and his effort flew past Grant, who may think he could have done slightly better, to give the home side the lead for the second time.
Considering this game came on the back of a demoralising 4-0 drubbing on Saturday the way the players reacted to going behind in the first instance was encouraging, and again they showed a steel and determination as they went hunting for a second equaliser.
Wade Elliott looked as though he was going to have the chance to save the game as he raced clear with 100 minutes on the clock, but he was denied the chance by Albrighton who hauled him down on the edge of the box.
Despite Elliott's best efforts to make it look like a penalty, it wasn't. Albrighton was given a deserved red card and from the resulting free kick Friedel was again found to be in top form, beating Wallace's fierce free kick away.
Extra-time sub Chris Iwelumo was given fifteen minutes to influence the game and he very nearly did. Tyrone Mears danced through a few challenges in the Villa box in the final minute before smashing a left foot effort at goal, which Friedel got down low to his right to keep out, the ball kindly popped up for the Scottish striker but his header lacked the required power and was cleared of the line, leaving Villa looking ahead to the quarter final draw and Burnley left hurting from another Carling Cup wound.