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!!

Baggies bow out.

Unfortunately for the Baggies it is the end of the FA cup road.  Two second half goals on Saturday from Villains Delph and Sinclair was enough to dump West Brom out of the competition and meant their bitter Midlands rivals progress to the next round.

Wembley will now host the claret and blue side of the Midlands instead of the blue and white side.  However their opponents for the semi final are still to be confirmed as Blackburn held Liverpool to an impressive draw at Anfield.

For another year the Baggies FA cup dream is over and just as in the last round the team I have supported have gone out out with a bit of a whimper.  

Tough exit for Pulis!!

I was hoping to see a similar game to when West Brom beat Forest in the quarter finals 37 years ago but unfortunately the only thing that Saturday's game had with a match from the late seventies was the behaviour of some of the fans who decided it would be a good idea to invade the pitch and rip out plastic seating.  How far football has come since those glory days of the 70's and 80's.

The Baggies will be now looking to keep their Premier league status in tact for next season, and under Tony Pulis I can't see anything other than WBA being a top level side next season, the truth is there are worse teams below them and as far I can see a couple more wins and they are absolutely safe, as Jim Bowen might say.  To be honest with some of the teams below them struggling as they are they may not even need as many wins as that , personally I think 34 points could guarantee safety this season but I highly expect the Baggies to surpass that target and finish way above the drop zone.

Bully reckons West Brom will be absolutely safe!!

So yet again it is with a heavy heart that I leave behind the Albion and continue my journey in search of the holy grail which is the team that will lift that big eared trophy on May 30th.

Good luck to Tony Pulis and his team for the rest of the season, who knows maybe our paths will cross when we do all this again next year.

Bad luck Baggies!!

Now onto my next team 

Come on you Villains!!!

West Bromwich Albion

It seems like ages ago that I started my journey on the glory hunt.  It was in fact way back on 15th August when Morpeth Town took on Dunston UTS in the extra pre-lim round of the FA cup.

Since that date I have followed Dunston, Spennymoor, AFC Telford United, Bristol City and West Ham United.  Now this coming weekend we are at the Quarter final stages and my new glory hunt team is the conquerors of West Ham in the last round West Bromwich Albion, WBA, the Baggies.


This weekend sees the Baggies take on the Villains in a all premier league, Midlands derby.  It is also a repeat of Tuesday nights game at Villa Park where Aston Villa ran out 2-1 winners courtesy of a last minute Christian Benteke penalty.

Benteke puts away last minute penalty on Tuesday night.

After a fantastic win in the last round against West ham West Brom will be hoping to raise their game again and get one over on their bitter rivals, the result in midweek will add a little spice to the proceedings and even though the game ended in  a defeat, I am sure that Tony Pulis and his boys will be fully focused about getting to the last four of the competition and the opportunity of a Wembley appearance.

Pulis looking to progress to the Semi Finals.

The 5 times cup winners haven't been in the cup final since 1968.  On that occasion they lifted the trophy thanks to an extra time goal scored by club legend and former fantasy football regular Jeff Astle.  The team they defeated on that day were Everton, who with a team consisting of such household names as Ball, Kendall, Harvey, Joe Royle and world cup winning full back Ray Wilson, must have been big favourites on the day.

The Three Amigos.  Ball, Harvey and Kendall.

Tim Sherwood looks to be injecting a new lease of life into he's relegation troubled team and maybe after Tuesday nights victory a corner may have been turned in the villains so far pretty poor season. Hopefully for the Baggies though the premier league win was just a blip and the Albion can bounce straight back and Tuesday night's result will be a long forgotten memory as they take their place in the next round.

Is Sherwood turning a corner at Villa?

It is obviously going to be a very close game Saturday teatime and I wouldn't be surprised if this one went to a replay.  It is really a hard one to call but if the Baggies were to get them back to the Hawthorns I would have them as favourites.

When I first started to get into football at the end of the seventies West Brom where right up there challenging Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the top of the first division, and in 1978 it was a 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest who were going for the treble that booked the Baggies place into the semi finals of the cup year.  West Brom's team that day had the likes of Tony Godden, John Wile, Alistair Robertson, Ally Brown and Tony Brown.  Forest had Shilton, Woodcock, O'Neil, Withe, Gemmill and John Robertson in their ranks but a goal in each half from Mick Martin and Cyrille Regis was enough to put the favourites out and guarantee the Albion a Semi Final showdown with Ipswich Town who went on to win the trophy that year beating Arsenal in the final.

Wow, Messrs Martin, Robson, Atkinson and Ally Brown.

http://youtu.be/KQjEIfq1fxo  Fa Cup Qtr Final West Bromwich Albion v Nottingham Forest 1978.



The Baggies would love to repeat this feat on Saturday against Aston Villa, on that day it was a goal from an Irish midfielder and an England International striker that put them through.  I wonder if on Saturday it might be the same scoreline with  perhaps Chris Brunt and Saido Berahino getting the goals.

Does Berahino the key man on Saturday.

Anyway what ever the outcome I am hoping for an entertaining game and the eventual winners to be the boys in blue and white stripes.

Up the Albion!!

Boing Boing you Baggies!!