JED Abbey scored a hat-trick as Alvechurch beat a young Aston Villa side on penalties to advance to the Birmingham Senior Cup semi-finals following an extraordinary 5-5 draw in regulation time.
Church came from behind on two separate occasions before they eventually took the lead in the final few minutes only for Villa to strike at the death and take the game to penalties.
And Ian Long brought on first choice goalkeeper Dan Jezeph for the shootout as Brad Burton scored the winning penalty to send Church into the last four at Lye Meadow.
Aston Villa raced into a two-goal lead as Finley Munroe scored a stunner before Charlie Lutz produced a clinical finish inside the first 20 minutes.
However, Abbey stepped up to score a trademark free-kick on the stroke of half time as he curled the ball around the wall and into the net from the edge of the penalty area.
Villa restored their two-goal advantage on 56 minutes when Lutz grabbed his second of the game only for Church to strike twice in as many minutes to restore parity.
Church reduced the deficit on 64 minutes when Jack Concannon found the net before Tyrell Skeen-Hamilton levelled two minutes later with a fine solo goal.
The visitors regained the lead on 79 minutes through Dylan Mitchell only for Abbey to equalise from the penalty spot four minutes from time after Skeen-Hamilton was pushed over in the box.
And Alvechurch finally took the lead on 88 minutes as Abbey completed his hat-trick only for Villa’s Lutz to score a hat-trick of his own with a dramatic injury time equaliser.
Jezeph replaced Harvey Randle in the Church goal for the shootout as Abbey missed the home side’s first penalty which left Villa 3-2 up after three spot kicks each.
And Jezeph saved Villa’s fourth penalty with the next three scored to take the shootout to sudden death before Jezeph made his second save only for Church’s Ellis Jones to miss a chance to win the game.
However, Villa missed their next penalty to hand Church another chance to win the tie and Burton duly scored to secure the home side’s place in the semi-finals.
Alvechurch are next in action away at Stratford Town on Saturday, March 18 with kick-off at 3pm at the Arden Garages Stadium.
