TOMMY Elphick remembers the moment he rippled the net at Villa Park like it was yesterday.

Selected for Brighton’s FA Cup fourth-round trip to the West Midlands in January 2010, Elphick probably expected his primary contribution to be in his own penalty area.

But when Elliott Bennett’s corner dropped kindly just before half-time, the untracked defender showed no hesitation as he lashed home at the near post.

That goal cancelled out Nathan Delfouneso’s opener and although Villa eventually prevailed 3-2 thanks to second-half efforts from Ashley Young and Fabian Delph, now-Cherries captain Elphick looks back fondly.

“I remember the ball dropping to me and it was an emphatic finish from six yards!” he joked.

“It was quite scrappy and I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time but it was a great feeling to get us back on terms.

“There were 6,000 Brighton fans in the ground so the atmosphere was brilliant and it was a nice highlight of my career to date to get that goal.

“Villa were flying at the time and had people like Ashley Young and James Milner in their side.

“Gus Poyet had just taken over at Brighton and we were struggling at the bottom of League One. The cup run was quite a good run for us to get a little bit of confidence.

“We got beaten but we played really well and gave a good account of ourselves.

“I’ve scored a couple of goals in the FA Cup so, hopefully, that’s a good omen going into Sunday’s game.”

That day five years ago imprinted in Elphick’s mind the memory of a fanatical home support. But he already had an idea of the necessary level of commitment from one of his Brighton team-mates.

Elphick said: “The Villa fans are very passionate and one I remember especially is Andy Whing, who I played alongside at Brighton.

“He was the right-back at the time but was a mad Villa fan and would follow them whenever we weren’t playing.

“After I played there, I understood where he had got it from.”

Cherries travel to Villa Park on Sunday as the top scorers in the top four divisions of English football, with their opponents the lowest in that bracket.

However, Elphick warned of the dangers of statistics and said the Premier League stalwarts would present a huge challenge.

He continued: “Stats are always there to be broken and to think we are going to beat them because of our respective scoring records is foolish.

“Aston Villa have got some dangerous players and a very good manager in Paul Lambert who is proven at the level. His team work very hard for him and they are always solid, so it will be a really tough test.

“The game has come at a good time for us after a defeat in the Championship. We can get away from the pressures of the league and a cup tie against a big Premier League team will, hopefully, give us a little bit of confidence if we can get the right result.

“They are playing at the level we are striving to get to, so it’s nice to get these games when there’s no pressure.

“They are expected to beat us but I think we’ve shown in the past that we can match Premier League teams. Hopefully, we can pit our wits against them a little bit more often in the future.”