The gloss of two great first half goals was taken off by a second half comeback from Aston Villa that ended Shane Long's dreams of a trip to Wembley this Sunday afternoon.

Shane's excellent brace gave us a fully deserved 2-0 lead at the interval, but Villa's quality showed through in the second half as they booked a semi-final date with Chelsea.

"It's disappointing to come so close and for it to be robbed away from you - it's hard to take," a dejected Long said.

"We've never really had a good run in the FA Cup and at half time you can't help thinking this might be our year.

"We did so well in the first half and then, after ten minutes of madness, it all slips out of your hands."

Long put the Royals into the lead with a close range header and then sent Madejski Stadium wild with a second before the break.

"We practice our set pieces in training a lot and it worked like a gem today. I just pulled off to the back stick and Millsy got his head to it, it came to me and I just nodded it home.

"And the second was all down to Jimmy. He's been brilliant for the last two or three months and he gave the left back a torrid time in the first half.

"Churchy ran to the near post so I dropped back. Thankfully Jimmy put it on my foot, so it was nice to get the second..

"I knew I wouldn't get too many chances against the likes of Dunne and Collins, so I was pleased I put them away when they fell for me."

But two hammer blows soon after the restart put Aston Villa back on level terms and dreams of Wembley were dramatically cut short.

"We came in at the break thinking, 2-0....we need to go out strong in the second half and try to get through the first 10 or 15 minutes, because we knew they'd come at us.

"We just wanted to guard things up, hold onto our lead. But everything started falling to them.

"We all know we played well there, but Aston Villa are a great side - you won't meet many better teams than that in the country.

"I hope they go on to win the competition because that whould show how far we have come.

"Even after they'd got one back, I thought it's OK - we're still in the lead, we still have something to hold onto.

"But I don't really know what happened. They had two really big centre forwards who both started causing us trouble - it's just disappointing.

"When heads were down we should have picked ourselves up and kicked on. But it wasn't to be.

"We all want to rewind about an hour now and play that second half again. But it's all gone now."

Royals boss Brian McDermott was full of praise for his young strike star after the game. "He was first class, he led the line really, really well," he said.

"He scored two goals against international defenders and to play like that was excellent. I was really pleased for him but proud of all of our players."

After a quite magnificent cup run that has transformed the Royals' season, Long was looking at the positives and already thinking of how to bounce back against Derby here on Wednesday night.

"I think we can hold our heads up high after this. We're back in training on Monday and back to business again. This cup run has turned our league form around and the confidence is back in the squad.

"Everybody is looking at the table saying we've got two games in hand - but we've got to win those games to make a difference. We've been playing very well lately - we just need to take this into the league, play well on Wednesday night and put this afternoon behind us.

"It's sad the way it's ended, but it's not been a bad run. Now we have 14 games left in the league and I want to improve on the six goals I've got so far this season."

A full post-match video interview with Brian McDermott and five minutes of match highlights are available now on our official online TV station Reading FC Player. Sign up today and get a 14-day trial absolutely free.