Shane Long wishes he could turn back time and replay the second-half of the FA Cup quarter-final against Aston Villa after Reading crashed out at the quarter-finals.

The 23-year-old striker claimed Royals were “robbed” by Martin O’Neill’s side after they looked to be on the way to Wembley thanks to Long’s first-half brace, which put them 2-0 ahead at half-time.

But a crazy 10 minute spell after the break saw Villa snatch three goals on their way to victory to crush Reading’s dreams of a historic day as they looked to reach the last four for the first time since 1927.

And a deflated Long said: “For that to get robbed from you it is hard to take.

“At 2-1 we still had something to hold onto, but their two big centre-forwards caused us trouble and it’s just disappointing because we all want to rewind and play that second-half again.

“But we’ll get over it and get back to business. We’ve never really had a great run in the FA Cup and at half-time we were thinking this is our year.

“We knew they’d come at us for the first 10 or 15 minutes, it was just unlucky.

“Everyone played well and it’s one of those things when heads are down that we should have picked ourselves up and pushed on, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Republic of Ireland star Long, back in the side after a four-game ban for his red card in the last round, headed Royals into the lead against the top-flight opposition in the 26th minute at Madejski Stadium.

Gylfi Sigurdsson’s inswinging corner was flicked on by centre-back Matt Mills, straight onto Long’s head to nod past USA goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

Long then doubled the lead after good work by Mali winger Jimmy Kebe down the right as he picked him out in the box to fire home from eight yards out.

However, despite dominating the first-half, Royals found themselves on the back foot as soon as the second-half began as Ashley Young started the Villa fightback, scoring after just two-minutes of action.

John Carew then came to the fore with goals on 51 and 57 minutes to stun Brian McDermott’s men.

Reading captain Ivar Ingimarsson went close to finding an equaliser with a bullet header that was cleared off the line by England international Young.

Substitute Grzegorz Rasiak also went close with a volley from just outside the box.

But Ingimarsson gifted Norwegian powerhouse Carew his hat-trick when he brought the targetman down inside the box.

He picked himself up and made no mistake from the spot to earn the Villans a day out at Wembley against cup holders Chelsea.

Long, who now has six goals from his last six games, said: “It’s disappointing to come so close and then have 10-minutes of madness and it all slips out of our hands.

“But we can hold our heads up high. They’re a great side there’s no denying that. Hopefully they go on and win the competition and show us how good and how close we came."

And Long, who was the Anfield hero for scoring the winner against Liverpool in the third round was hoping to get a Wembley shirt to give to his proud mum who is framing his top from that famous night along with her match day ticket.

“It’s just a pity I couldn’t get her a shirt from Wembley,” added the former Reading Academy graduate.

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