Perhaps it’s a sign of class to have played so poorly only to end up winning the game, but Aston Villa fans won’t mind after Morgan Rogers endured a night he’ll likely forget wanted, scored the goal that took the wind out of the team’s early signs of Graham Potter’s magic.

The new West Ham United coach, who signed a two-and-a-half year contract to replace Julen Lopetgui on the eve of this game, completed a training session with his players and will have to wait until next week’s Premier League games against Fulham and Crystal Palace to do so see if he can get them out of the relegation zone.

But they impressed as they took the lead through Lucas Paquetá’s early goal, but Villa were able to prepare for the challenge on a sub-zero night in the West Midlands and equalized through Amadou Onana. The Champions League team managed to win only their second FA Cup game in nine years.

While Villa marched out of the stadium in the black shirts of their predecessors to mark their 150th anniversary, West Ham stormed out in their unnecessary white away kit, unrecognizable from the team that Lopetegui had led into the hare role.

Potter may have only had one training session with his new charges, but his impact on this game was immediate. Barely 40 seconds had passed when, at the end of a flowing West Ham move initiated by Lukasz Fabianski, Paquetá fired a magnificent shot that went as close to the post as it did to the crossbar, beating Robin Olsen.

It wasn’t a coincidence either, as West Ham continued to stay ahead and earned the lead in the ninth minute. The goal was right in the Potter playbook, combining pragmatism with attacking precision. Max Kilman received the ball from Fabianski and played a deliberate pass upfield to Niclas Füllkrug, who headed it back to Mohammed Kudus, who chested the ball to the ground before firing it wide to Crysencio Summerville on the climb.

The former Leeds winger took a few purposeful steps before directing his pass low and straight across Paquetá’s side, who side-footed it back into the corner to avoid Olsen’s momentum.

Emiliano Martínez had expressed his desire for Villa to win a trophy in the build-up to the game, so the world’s best goalkeeper, who was one of three changes left out from the team that beat Leicester 2-1 last weekend, must have been cursing ; not that Olsen could have done much.

But it wasn’t until the 13th minute that Füllkrug grabbed the ball, sprinted forward and tried to fend off a long ball. He then immediately signaled to the bench to get away, which he did energetically, clinging to his thigh muscles. Former Villa striker Danny Ings arrived.

This was Villa’s 29th game of the season and the second in a packed January with seven games in three competitions. It was to their credit that the seven-time FA Cup winners started with such a strong line-up, but that too was curtailed early on as Ross Barkley, feeling his ankle, had to be replaced by Onana.

Villa gradually got into the game and began to dominate possession, but they were sluggish in their passing and decision-making. While West Ham defended strategically and Summerville effectively played right-back out of possession, Aaron Wan-Bissaka was left out.

Summerville had been treated in the first half and were next to go out, but while Vladimir Coufal came on at right-back, the move also featured Potter’s imprint as Wan-Bissaka moved further up the field when in possession to the right of three behind Ings .

However, Villa upped the ante as the game approached the final quarter as Youri Tielemans shot wide from the edge of the box before Ian Maatsen finally forced Fabianski into his first save of the night in the 69th minute.

Just as Unai Emery was preparing to usher in the changes for the final attack – with Emiliano Buendía, Kosta Nedeljkovic and Jacob Ramsey as substitutes – Onana equalized.

West Ham could complain that Villa shouldn’t have been given a corner in the first place. But after the pass, Tyrone Mings shot further, Ezri Konsa passed the ball back and Maatsen’s shot was deflected by Tomas Soucek to Fabianski, inviting Onana to shoot the rebound into the goal. The novel prospect of an extension in the third round was tempting, but only for a short time.

Villa were now back on the march and when Ollie Watkins ran down the inside left channel to receive Buendía’s pass, the England striker placed his low cross perfectly at the post for Rogers to side-foot a shot home from close range.

Ramsey smashed a shot against the post as Villa looked to finish strongly and book a rare place in the fourth round of this competition.