Wanderers can hold their heads high

After extra time

Villa win 4-1 on penalties. RARELY in the long and glorious history of Wembley has a losing team left with so much pride. There were tears shed and some found it hard to keep their chins up but that was the disappointment of defeat weighing so heavily on their shoulders.

Ten months ago Wanderers made a sad and shameful exit under the shadow of the twin towers but not this time. Sam Allardyce and his players walked tall as they boarded their team coach knowing they had done their club, their town and the Natiownwide League proud in a semi-final in which they were only meant to be making up the numbers!

Fans, who had been so deeply demoralised that their very loyalty and support had been undermined and in some cases demolished by the the abject performances against Watford in last season's play-off final and over two legs of this season's Worthington Cup semi-final duel with Tranmere, knew they'd been just one kick away from taking a unique place in history. Some said it was Wanderers' destiny, having won the first FA Cup Final at Wembley, to appear in the last.

On reflection, the way their luck eventually deserted them, it seemed the fates had actually conspired against them.

They were more than a match for their Premiership opponents but one calamitous miss by Dean Holdsworth, just nine minutes from the end of extra time, let Villa off the hook, took the game into a penalty shoot out and the world just came tumbling down around them.

Holdsworth redeemed himself when he bravely stepped up to beat David James to make it all square after Steve Stone had kicked off the penalty shoot-out. But the Villa keeper, who was in goal when Liverpool beat Wanderers in the 1995 Coca-Cola Cup Final, saved the next two spot-kicks from Allan Johnston and Michael Johansen and with Lee Hendrie and Gareth Barry tucking theirs away, it was all set up for Dion Dublin to assume the role of the fairy-tale hero.

What is it about the FA Cup that produces such romance? Fourteen weeks ago Dublin was worried he would never play again - some said lucky to be alive after breaking a bone in his neck. Now he's the toast of the Claret and Blues. "It's Villa by a neck!" one wag with a Brummy accent shouted, celebrating his team's good fortune with an irreverant but apt assessment.

It should never have got to that stage though.

Wanderers, revelling in the role of underdogs, produced an heroic performance that had their outumbered but never outshouted supporters on their feet and in full voice right to the end.

Bitter memories of the Watford game came flooding back when Eidur Gudjohnsen was unlucky to see his 19th minute shot deflect wide off Alan Wright after a turn that left Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu for dead! Holdsworth had already seen a header graze the post and it was worrying that it had been at a similar stage on that Spring Bank Holiday Monday last year that the wheels fell off the promotion bandwagon.

But this time there was to be no collapse. Far from it.

Wanderers are made of sterner stuff these days. True, they rode their luck when Julian Joachim missed two one-on-one chances in the first half of normal time - his first wildly off target the second well saved by the other JJ, Jussi Jasskelainen. The Finland keeper, third choice at the start of the season but now a much more confident character behind a rock solid defence, was stretched once more when he tipped a Dublin header onto his post in the second period of extra time but that was the extent of the threat from Villa's so-called danger men.

Wanderers had set out to keep tabs on Benito Carbone and Paul Merson - two of the most in-form players in the Premiership - and the plan worked perfectly, to such an extent that it was the Italian and not Joachim who was substituted to make way for Dublin. Much to the Italian's disgust judging by the venom with which he kicked over the physio's water bucket.

Allardyce's back four - playing in his own image and likeness these days - excelled. You didn't have to see any of the action to know that Mark Fish was producing an all-action display. The cries of "Feeesh" boomed out at regular intervals as the South African made one telling tackle or important interception after another.

Paul Ritchie was equally commanding beside him. No wonder Allardyce was sweating over his fitness after his midweek appearance for Scotland!

The big question ahead of the game had been whether Wanderers could find a way round or through the highly-rated Villa defence. And, although Johnston managed to work the left flank to good effect and Johansen probed away on the right, one dimension was missing. The events of the previous week - the car crash, his unexpected flying visit to Portugal to win his first cap for Denmark - appeared to have taken their toll on Claus Jensen and the elegant midfielder never really got into his stride.

Nevertheless, Wanderers caused Villa problems throughout - even deep into extra time when the Premiership side's class had long since been matched by determination, desire and a passionate push for glory by players and fans alike.

The 25,000 at the tunnel end sensed victory was there for the taking and Mark Delaney buckled under the pressure. Backtracking as Johnston made two darts into the inside left channel, the young Welshman earned himself two yellow cards in the space of three minutes and referee David Elleray reduced Villa to 10 men!

It should have been advantage Wanderers but Holdsworth's free kick beat James' full length dive and cannoned back off the post.

"Deano! Deano!" the fans chanted in deafening encouragement. They got just what they wanted seconds later when Gudjohnsen, always looking to produce something special, rounded James and unselfishly laid the ball back. For a split second Wanderers were convinced they'd done it. They were in the final on May 20.

All Holdsworth had to do was stroke the ball firmly and the glory was his!

As the shot flew over from 10 yards the club's record signing held his head in his hands. He knew the chance was gone. Some 15 minutes later it was all over.

Nat Lofthouse had shed tears of emtion as he received a standing ovation from the massed Wanderers' fans before kick off. He'll have shed one or two more at the end no doubt.

The great man brought home a winners' medal in 1958 - as did Joe Smith's Wanderers of 1923. This time there are only tears for souvenirs. But there's no shame in that.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.