BLACKBURN Rovers’ exciting crop of young guns were hailed after they produced another late, late show to seal their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup.

Rovers set-up the last-16 tie at Villa Park after beating Aston Villa’s Midlands rivals Leicester City 3-2 at home in the fourth round with virtually the last kick of extra-time.

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And Billy Barr’s side repeated the trick against Villa on Monday night as man-of-the-match Tre Pemberton scored in injury-time to seal a thoroughly deserved 2-1 victory after Lewis Mansell saw a shot saved.

Rovers fell behind to a first-half own goal from Scott Wharton but, after Lewis Hardcastle equalised nine minutes into the second half following a Willem Tomlinson corner, they settled a contest they had dominated from start to finish with a cool finish from livewire winger Pemberton.

“It is great for the lads to come to such an iconic stadium and progress through,” said assistant coach Ian Jones, who is right-hand man to Rover Under-18s boss Barr.

“We were delighted with them and if you are going to win a game then that is the way to win it.

“Against Leicester we scored with about 30 seconds remaining and we’ve gone and done it again.

“We are in the sixth round now so we’ll keep plodding along. I think that the performance tonight was good.

“We are just delighted to be in the next round.”

Next up for Rovers is a last-eight clash at home to either Preston North End or Luton Town.

Preston and Luton go head-to-head at Deepdale a week tonight to decide who will make the trip to Ewood Park, a date for which has yet to be set.

Meanwhile, Rovers’ U18s Premier Division encounter at home to Wolves on Saturday has been postponed as their opponents will be in FA Youth Cup combat the night before.

Rovers return to action next Tuesday when they welcome fellow high flyers Sunderland to Brockhall (12.30pm kick-off).

Sunderland stole a last-gasp 2-1 victory when the teams met at the Academy of Light late last month.

That remains Rovers’ sole defeat in their last nine games in all competitions.