SAM Allardyce felt it was a game of two halves as Rovers crashed out of the FA Cup at the first attempt.

The first match of a January cup treble against Aston Villa saw the Midlander's gain first blood courtesy of a 3-1 win at Villa Park.

It was a first half to forget for Rovers. Delfouneso put the home side in front before David Dunn missed from the spot.

Then Cuellar added a second and moments later Rovers were reduced to ten men after Diouf's red card.

But the second half was much improved from the ten men. Nikola Kalinić grabbed his third of the season to reduce arrears, but they couldn't grab a second and Carew scored from the spot with seconds left.

"All the damage was done in the first half for us," said the Rovers boss after the game.

"We gave ourselves such a big uphill battle.

"Even though we played as well as we did in the second, we couldn't quite get back to where we would like to.

"I've given the players great credit for the way that they've played in the second half, apart from just giving that silly penalty away at the death which was a shame really because it was a really good recovery from us.

"It was a really good performance from the ten players that were out there."

The first half couldn't have gone any worse for Rovers. They went behind early on through Delfouneso's header. Then David Dunn saw his penalty saved after Steven Reid had been brought down.

Carlos Cuellar then doubled Villa's lead before El-Hadji Diouf was shown a straight red for a two-footed challenge on Habib Beye.

"The first half was a disaster for us. We missed a penalty, went 2-0 down and then got a player sent off," added Allardyce.

"That was the disappointing thing for me as we always looked in the game and when we got the penalty I thought we'd get it back to 1-1 and settle us down.

"But it just went from bad to worse from there so at least we showed the right professional attitude and the right way to get back into a game even with ten men.

"In the second half I was really pleased with the players.