Hitherto, Villa's progress in the FA Cup
had been noted but had not stimulated huge interest until Villa's local antagonists,
the Albion, were put to the sword in the quarter-finals. By the time Villa
found out that they were to be up against Liverpool in the semi-final, Villa's mostly
improved performances since Tim Sherwood's arrival caused their faithful
supporters to be more upbeat. Claims of "Tekkers will sort 'em out"
and ambitious visions of a substantial Liverpool defeat became a normal form of
communication from one Villa fan to another and on the blogs.
When, however, the due kick-off arrived
the anticipation had been hushed just a little, but only a little. But when Baker went off injured
after only about 20 minutes, it didn't look quite so good despite Villa's
bright start. Yet another Villa centre-back had to retire to the bench: it had been
like this all season, it seemed. Sherwood shook his head in disbelief.
Worse, Villa went behind and the replacement
and still warming-up centre-back, Okore, was not only partly to blame for
helping Liverpool to probe their way through, but it was also his knee that
deflected the ball into the net when it looked as though the ball might have
gone at least 10 yards wide. But then Tekkers did indeed "sort 'em
out" with an emphatic finish after a glorious Villa move that sliced
through the Liverpool defence down the left. It was back to all-square at
half-time.
The second half came alight within 10 minutes
of the restart when another glorious Benteke-Grealish-Delph move down the left
ended with Villa's captain scoring as though scoring was a weekly activity for
him. It wasn't: it was only his second of the season, and both scored in the Cup.
The fun didn't stop there. On at least
two occasions it seemed Villa must add again to their tally; Liverpool seemed to
be all at sea facing Villa's brilliant and incisive interplay, something that
Villa's younger fans had not even seen before in their lifetime. The pre-match
optimism had been totally justified.
It got to the point that Liverpool
clearly lost faith in themselves as two or three headed chances went begging in
the last quarter period of the game, but Villa were not to be outdone. After a
mostly wretched season, Villa had played like a team completely reborn and,
furthermore, a dominant team. Every player deserved high commendation for their
effort, and three - Delph, Grealish and Benteke - were nothing short of outstanding.
Arsenal in the Final? It will be just
another game to this lot!
Can a 58-year wait soon be over? Of course it can!
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