Millwall v Aston Villa
The FA Cup with Budweiser
Fourth Round Proper
7.45pm, Friday 25 January 2013
The Den, Millwall FC
Winning clubs receive £90,000 from The FA's Prize Fund
Click here for fixtures
By Nicholas Veevers

Kenny Jackett is hoping Millwall can conduct the crowd into life at the Den on Friday night, as they aim to make Aston Villa’s week even worse.

The Lions host Paul Lambert’s side in the first FA Cup tie of the weekend, just days on from Villa’s League Cup semi-final shock at the hands of Bradford City.

Villa missed out on a place in the Wembley final on Tuesday after losing on aggregate over two legs against the League Two side.

And Millwall boss Jackett knows that it’s now down to his side to ramp up the famous Den atmosphere with their own performance and help inspire an upset.

He said: “A night game is usually a special atmosphere at the Den, so it’s a game that we’ll look forward to.

“Firstly though, my team’s performance has got to be right and we need to start the game off better than we did last week against Burnley.

“If there is a win there for us, it is our own performance that will do it and the Den atmosphere does go off the players.

“It’s not the other way around. I don’t look to the crowd to lead the players, it’s the players who should lead the crowd.

“Generally, supporters come to be positive and they want you to do well.

“The performance of the players is our responsibility to give first and then we can start to talk about a Den atmosphere, which will follow very quickly if we play well.”

The match is being staged on Friday due to a local protest against a planned closure of the A&E section of Lewisham Hospital.

Villa arrive in south London on the back of some patchy form in the Premier League which has seen them slip towards the relegation zone.

But Jackett doesn’t feel the alteration of the game will give his side too much of an advantage on Friday.

“If you have a lot of games in succession or quickly, getting over actual knocks, injuries or suspensions, you can do nothing about,” he added.

“But I’m not sure about actual tiredness, I think you can talk yourself into that, so will that have an effect? I’d probably say no.

“Actually, I think it’s good and it certainly helps me for the following Tuesday when we play Barnsley away.”