Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion lock horns for the second time in four days on Saturday evening with an FA Cup Semi-Final place at stake.
The local rivals faced-off on Tuesday night in the Premier League with Villa winning the game in dramatic fashion, courtesy of a Christian Benteke penalty deep into injury time.
However, a veteran of both clubs, Cyrille Regis, expects Saturday’s late afternoon kick-off to be a very different affair.
Aston Villa v West Brom
The FA Cup
Sixth Round Proper
5.30pm, Saturday 7 March 2015
Villa Park, Aston Villa
Winners receive £360,000 from FA prize fund
Live on BBC1
"This is the sort of pressure you want, you don’t want the pressure they faced on Tuesday, which is a negative pressure where you’ve got to survive," said Regis.
"This is a positive pressure, it is like being second and going for the League, it is a wonderful place to be psychologically.
"It will definitely increase Villa’s confidence having beaten them this week, but Tony Pulis will expect a reaction from his side."
The two teams go into this weekend’s FA Cup Sixth Round tie having previously reached 20 FA Cup Semi-Finals apiece.
Albion can also boast ten Finals and five FA Cup successes, and Regis says he was left in no doubt as to the club’s Cup pedigree when he joined in 1977.
"When I was at West Brom, Ronnie Allen was manager and he played in some of those FA Cup Finals and he would make us aware of it," he told TheFA.com.
"Bomber Brown would tell us about 1968 and Jeff Astle and you’d see pictures of it around the place. You’d get a real sense of the history.
"You’d want to do it for yourself and you’d want to do it for the fans."
Cyrille Regis signed for West Brom from non-League Hayes in 1977
Regis ended up playing over 200 games for the Baggies during the most prolific period of the striker’s career, but he admits it could have all been so different were it not for one former FA Cup winner.
"I was a non-League player at Hayes and Ronnie Allen got to know about me. He came to watch me a couple of times but Albion weren’t sure," he recalled.
"I think Bert Millichip and the board thought that £10,000 to take a youngster from London was a risk.
"Ronnie Allen turned around and said, ‘I will buy him out of my own money and when he makes it, you can give me my money back’.
"On the strength of that they bought me. That was a focal point in my career because Ronnie Allen believed in me and I think we all need that."
Regis played at Villa from 1991 to 1993
Regis also believes parallels can be drawn between the trust he was shown and the faith being invested in a current young Albion striker.
"Saido Berahino is on a hot streak at the moment and he is a good player," he said.
"Well done to the Albion for giving him a chance. We all want to see players come through the academy system and it gives the other players in it a lift when they see someone come through and do well."
By close of play Saturday, one of Regis’s former clubs will be back at Wembley and two wins from another FA Cup triumph.
The 1987 FA Cup winner believes Villa or Albion could go all the way this year.
"One of them could go on and win it," he said. "You look at Wigan beating Manchester City a couple of years back in The FA Cup Final, we beat Tottenham when we weren’t fancied and Wimbledon beat Liverpool.
"When you get momentum, have a bit of luck on your side and get to that last eight everybody has a realistic chance of winning The FA Cup."
