Sherwood's merry men put pay to kop king Gerrard's birthday bash.

A goal each from Christian Benteke and midfielder Fabian Delph was enough to cancel out Philipe Coutinho's 30th minute strike and make sure it was the Villa who progressed to the Fa cup final on may 30th and not the Reds.

Villa players celebrate Delph's goal

A late Ballotelli strike was ruled out for offside and although replays show the Liverpool striker was in fact onside no-one could say that the Midlands side didn't deserve the luck and ultimately the victory.  Even Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers admitted that Villa were the better team and worthy winners of this semi final contest.

It really was an amazing effort from Tim Sherwood's team in a game where everyone of their players can hold their heads high after putting in a fantastic performance to defeat the big Merseyside favourites.

The two goalscorers will take a lot of the plaudits and rightly so but there were solid performances throughout the team from 1-11.  A special mention has to be given to the midfielders, the likes of Westwood, Grealish and of course Delph were brilliant and it is no coincidence that their control of the game had a telling contribution to the outcome of this cup tie.

young Grealish was in fine form

It is a long old time until the final comes around at the end of May and it is going to be full of many more cup finals if  Villa want to keep their place in the Premier league.  I am sure though that Sherwood will keep his troops focused and make sure that they don't get carried away with the dreams of the cup final.  There is still obviously work to be done and the last thing any team wants to be doing is turning up at Wembley to face holders Arsenal as a relegated team.  As I have said before I don't think this will be the case and I reckon that Sherwood will have a few harsh words for any of his players who show any signs of complacency.

Sherwood the mastermind behind the success

Tim Sherwood is more than aware that as much as getting to a cup final is a fantastic achievement, especially given where the club were when he took over, nothing at all is as important as keeping their top flight status.

At the end of the day  I am truly hoping that the Villa can pull off another major upset and
beat the Gunners in the final, that combined with league safety will be the best kind of double the Aston Villa fans could hope for.

I will be round my mates on Fa cup final day as is tradition and I will be cheering on the mighty Villa.

Here's hoping they can lift the famous old trophy for the first time since 1957, incidentally they were underdogs that year as well when they beat Manchester United the Busby babes no less.

Villa with the cup in 1957

Onto the cup final then and.....

Come on the Villains

Up the Villa!!

Aston Villa

We are coming very soon to the end of my Fa cup glory hunt for this year and with only 4 clubs remaining in the competition, my latest team that I hope will lead me to glory is Aston Villa.  The Villains, The Villa.


For anyone who hasn't read any of my posts about the Fa cup glory hunt then let me explain a bit about what it's all about.

Way back in August as the Premier league were just kicking off the Fa cup extra pre-lim round was also kicking off.  The idea was that I would pick a team from the very first round of the Fa cup and then follow that team until they were knocked out, when that team were knocked out I would follow their conquerors and the theme continues until eventually I am supporting the winning team in the final.  Hence the name glory hunt.

I picked my first team totally at random and decided to go for a totally unknown team in the lower realms of the Northern league.  I plumped for a team called Morpeth Town (for no other reason than because I liked the name).  Morpeth (the Highwaymen) were at home to Dunston UTS.  Dunston won the game so I followed them until they were eventually knocked out by Spennymoor Town.  I continued to follow the Mooors until their unlucky defeat to AFC Telford United.  Telford lost to Bristol City, Bristol City lost to West Ham, The Hammers bowed out to West Bromwich Albion and finally The Baggies lost to Aston Villa.  And that is where I now find myself  supporting Aston Villa at Wembley in the Semi final of the Fa cup.

I say supporting them at Wembley, to be fair I will be nowhere near Wembley Stadium come 3 O'clock on Sunday and as the game is on BT Sport which I don't have I'll probably not see any of the game until the highlights are shown on BBC in the evening.

All that aside,  Up the Villa!!

It's old news now that Villa are having some sort of turnaround in form lately, and that the appointment of Tim Sherwood has been the spark that they needed to try and change their fortunes this season both in the cup and the Premier league.

A lot has been made about Sherwood and how he has got the best out of Christian Benteke, it was also mentioned last year when Sherwood was at Spurs at how he got the best out of Adebayor.  I think with Adebayor he really did work a bit of magic, however with Benteke I just think he told him what a good player he was.  The truth is the striker was on fire last season until he got injured, he was out for a long time and it takes a bit of time to get back to sharpness.  I am not saying that Paul Lambert wasn't bigging him up, but I do think there was an obvious problem with the way he was motivating him, because he looked a shadow of the striker he was.  Sherwood is a bit of a maverick in the managers field and he has a knack of saying what he thinks and doesn't really care what reaction he gets.  I wouldn't have been surprised if he just said to Benteke "look I aint being funny mate, but I saw you last season and you scared the shit out of defences and I reckon now your over your injury you can go out there and do it again".  It may be that coming from another manager who was managing a rival team last term may arouse more of a reaction than it possibly would from a former manager who was under pressure and who's word's may just have been falling on deaf ears.

Whatever the reason the hopes in both cup and league are mainly on the shoulders of the main striker and the manager.  Personally I think there are 3 worse teams in the league than Villa and I would expect them to be in the top flight next season.   Villa fans beware though as I also predicted that AFC Telford United would survive in the Conference and ultimately they were relegated with still four or five games remaining.

 As for the cup I think it is obviously going to be a tough game playing against a team like Liverpool, however having seen Liverpool quit a bit this season Villa definitely have chance against their rather underwhelming defence.  There will be chances for Sherwood and his men and if Benteke is at his best there is no reason why the Midlands side can't make the most of this break from the battle in the league and knock The Reds out of the cup.

Although Liverpool may be a bit shall we say suspect at the back, there is no doubt that their attacking prowess needs to be curtailed.  With the likes of Raheem Sterling, Jordan Ibe and their most dangerous player in my opinion Phillipe Coutinho.  The Liverpool number 10 has the skill and ability to make things happen and needs to be watched carefully if Villa want to come out of this game as victors.  It looks likely that Sturridge will be out injured and with defenders and big name players missing it will be a great chance for Aston Villa this weekend.  Here is hoping that the Villains rob the Scousers for a change and come 4:45 or so on Sunday afternoon the winners will be in Claret and Blue and not Red.

Coutinho is Liverpool's dangerman.

I am sure all Villa fans would take a repeat scoreline of  a 1-0 win that they had back in September, where Agbonlahor scored the only goal over the Reds at Villa Park earlier this season.

Gabby looking for a repeat performance.

Come on you Villains!!

Up the Villa!!