End of the road.

After a rather one sided cup final on Saturday it's commiserations to Aston Villa but a huge congratulations to my final glory hunt team Arsenal on winning the the oldest cup competition in the world for a record 12th time.

It has been a pretty good season all and all for the Gunners not only did they retain the trophy they won against Hull City last May but yet again they managed to qualify for the champions league yet again, with a final position of  3rd in the Premier league.

Enough now about the big boys.  It is time to turn our attention to the smaller clubs that started their Fa cup journey way back in August.

Morpeth Town AFC

The Highwaymen may not of had a great season in the Fa cup as they fell at the first hurdle, however they faired much better in their league.  Morpeth finished the season in the EBAC Northern league division 1 in a respectable 8th place, with a final points tally of  70 points.

Michael Chilton finished as they clubs top scorer with 31 goals for the season.

The Highwaymen also finished runners up to cup giant killers Blyth Spartans in the Northumberland Senior cup final.  After an apparently close game Morpeth were narrowly defeated  2-0 by the Spartans.


Dunston UTS

Dunston UTS were conquerors of Morpeth Town in the extra pre-lim round.  The Fed as they are known got as far as the 2nd qualifying round where they lost out to Spennymoor Town.  They were victorious against Durham City and Marske United in the earlier rounds before succumbing to a very good Moors side.

The Fed's  highest scorer was Andrew Bulford who managed to net 18 times this term.  It looked for a long time as though Scott Fenwick would be their top marksman but a return of 7 goals in just 12 appearances sparked interest from bigger clubs and Fenwick was signed by League 2 team Hartlepool in November last year.

Dunston finished the season 6th in the Northern Premier League Division 1, 2 places and 6 points above Morpeth.  The Fed got to the last 16 of the Fa Vase and and manged a semi final of the Northern league cup.


Spennymoor Town

Spennymoor Town were probably the most unluckiest team I followed in the cup this year, it was only an injury time equaliser that kept AFC Telford in the competition and in the replay it was Telford who progressed at Town's expense.

It was a season of mostly disappointment for the Moors as they just missed out on the play off final after narrowly losing out 3-2 to Darlington 1883 after leading 2-1.  Darlington eventually won the final and were promoted after beating Bamber Bridge 2-0.

Michael Roberts and Liam Henderson lead the way in the scoring charts as the Moors finished 5th in the league with 77 points on the board.  The highlight of the season has to be their home win over Clitheroe in March when they strolled out 8-3 winners.



AFC Telford United

The Bucks overcome Spennymoor and then Basingstoke to reach the 2nd round of the Fa Cup before they were finally beaten by highest ranked team in the competition Bristol City.  The Fa cup run was really the only bright spot in what turned out to be a pretty disappointing season, which ultimately ended in relegation.

Telford ended the season 23rd in the Conference with 36 points 9 points from safety.  The Bucks may well take hope into next season as their end of season form wasn't too bad, but unfortunately for them and their supporters it was too little too late.  Good luck to them next year and hopefully with a few additions they could up the top challenging and who knows maybe they can get back to the Conference at the first attempt.


Bristol City

Bristol City have had the most successful season out of all the glory hunt teams I have followed.  To be fair they had a fantastic season by anybody's standards.

They only reached the fourth round in this competition where they were put out by West Ham after a late goal by Diafro Sakho was enough to end their Fa cup adventure.

To be honest it was probably a blessing in disguise as the Robins ended up winning League 1 with an incredible 99 points, 8 points clear of their nearest rivals MK Dons.

City finished the season with an emphatic 8-2 victory over Walsall.

Not only were the Robins league champions but the also added the JPT Trophy to their ever expanding trophy cabinet after a 2-0 win again over Walsall.

With the players Steve Cotterill has at his dispossalat the club, especially in the attacking third of the field, I wouldn't be surprised to see them fighting for at least a play off place next season, maybe even challenging for promotion to the Premier League.


West Ham United

The Hammers managed to get past Everton in the 3rd round when Adrian scored the crucial spot kick in the penalty shoot out. The Irons eventually went out of the competition in the 5th round after losing against West Bromwich Albion.

West Ham finished the season in 12th position in the Premier league.  In most other season this would have been seen as a successful season, however after being as high as 3rd at the turn of the year and challenging for a European slot.  The  second half of the season was nothing short of appalling as the Irons only managed to win 2 games in the whole of 2015.  The Hammers still managed to qualify for the Europa League through the fair play league and will hope that they can replicate their impressive start from last season at the start of next season.  It will however be under a new manager as Sam Allardyce left the club at the end of this term.


West Bromwich Albion

The Baggies knocked West Ham out in round 5 but were convincingly beaten themselves by local rivals Aston Villa in the very next round.

Albion finished their domestic season in 13th place in the premier league just 3 points behind West Ham in the league.

Although West Brom looked as though they would be in a relegation struggle Tony Pullis steered them away from danger and kept them safe in a decent mid table finish.


Aston Villa

Villa knocked out rivals West Brom and then amazingly beat Liverpool in the semi final after coming back from a goal behind to reach the Fa cup final.

Villa's cup form coincided with some good league form and although they lost their last two Premier league games of the season, there were 3 worse teams than the Villians and luckily for them they managed to stay up.

Tim Sherwood's appointment as manager looks to have been their saving grace and as long as he is able to build his own team next season then Villa shouldn't be in the sorry state they were in this season.

I see an improvement next year for Villa next season, though it maybe sometime off befoire they have another big day out at Wembley.


So my glory hunt is over for this season and I hope to do it all again this Summer.  Hopefully I will be filming the drawing of my first glory hunt team sometime in the near future.

All that is left to say is thanks to all that have read the blog and thanks to all who have given feedback.

Up the Gunners!!!

The Fa Cup Final

Saturday is the Fa cup final and it sees the end to this seasons glory hunt.  The final will be between two Premier league sides in Aston Villa and holders Arsenal.

Wembley was a nothing but a far off dream way back in August when I first started this cup journey.  Whilst Villa and Arsenal were kicking off their first games of the season teams from the lowest reaches of the English football pyramid were readying themselves for cup football in the extra pre-lim round.

For anyone who hasn't read this blog before the idea was to pick a random team from the very first round of the cup and follow that team until they were knocked out and then in true glory hunt style I then supported their victors.

Back in August I decided to take a punt on Morpeth Town from the Northern football league division 1.  Their opponents in the extra pre-lim round were Dunston UTS.  Dunston won the tie and continued to win until their progress was halted by Spennymoor Town.  The Moors where impressive and narrowly missed out on a first round proper place by losing out to AFC Telford in a replay.  Telford eventually came a cropper in the second round as they lost out just, to the highest ranked team in the competition at that time Bristol City.  City lost in the 3rd round to West Ham and then West Ham beat Everton before falling short to West Bromwich Albion.  Albion were beaten in the quarters by Villa and it is the claret and blue side of Birmingham I am now following in the final after their impressive victory over Liverpool in the semi.


The idea of the glory hunt was really to highlight the smaller teams in the competition and learn more about these teams that in some cases I have never heard of.  In the main I had good feedback from the fans and clubs that I featured in this blog and it has been fun looking at their ups and downs throughout the season even after my allegiance to them was severed by their exit from the competition.

When the final is over I will be looking back at how all these teams have faired in their respected leagues and cup competitions.

Now though it is time to talk about the big one.

Villa are going to be big underdogs on Saturday, and although they managed to stave off relegation from the premier league their end of season form hasn't been the best.  In fact the last two games were both losses.  Sherwood's men can maybe be excused though as once they looked as if they had enough points to stay up they probably subconsciously had their mind on their big day out, and to be fair there isn't any crime in that especially when you have had such a hard and at times frustrating season.  The last thing the manager would have wanted would have been any injuries to key players leading up to Saturday's match and it looks as though the Villa will have the luxury of picking from a full strength squad.

Arsenal on the other hand are in fine form as they yet again finish the season strongly and confirmed their place in the Champions League group stage for the 150th season in a row.  The Gunners are playing some lovely attractive stuff at the moment and they really are moving the ball around well.  Obviously they will be the big favourites in the final, however the Fa cup is the greatest for a reason and that is a lot to do with the fact that the firm favourites don't always win.

I will be cheering on the Villa on Saturday and I reckon a lot of others will because they are the underdogs.  Last year Arsenal eventually won the trophy after coming back from 2-0 down to a very un-fancied Hull City.  If Villa were to replicate that this year I believe it would be a tougher mountain to climb than it was last year and I would expect Sherwood's men to do a better job and see it.  Again though it is so hard to predict and anything is possible.

Arsenal celebrate last years cup win against Hull

The key for Villa in this game will be in midfield and in all likelihood it will be down to how well they deal with the threat the Arsenal midfield pose them.  Having said that if Delph, Westwood and Grealish put in a performance like they did against Liverpool and if the revitalised Benteke has got his shooting boots on there is no reason why Aston Villa can't take the big prize.

Can young Jack Grealish make the difference on Saturday?

An 8th Fa cup final success is a real possibility, although it would be the first since 1957 and also their first piece of silverware since they won the League cup in 1996.

Villa celebrate their last Fa cup victory in 1957.  That young boy is about 65 now!!

I will always have a soft spot for Villa because they beat Bayern Munich and won the European Cup in 1982.  Tony Morley, Gordon Cowans, Peter Withe and all that.  There wasn't a lot of football on the telly at the time so like all the big finals of the time I have fond memories of it.  I still will never know though how Tony Morley never made the England world cup squad in 1982.  Mr Greenwood what were you thinking of.

You have to go back to 1974 for the last time Aston Villa beat Arsenal in the Fa cup, It was in the 4th round and after a 1-1 draw at Highbury, Villa secured their passage to the next round with a 2-0 win at Villa Park.  Goals on the day came from Alun Evans and Sammy Morgan.  Morgan had also scored in the first game, Ray Kennedy scored the Gunners goal on that day.

Sammy Morgan and Bob Wilson have a gurn off back in 1974

That year though they lost in the very next round with a 1-0 defeat to Burnley.

If Villa can pull it off on Saturday it will be a remarkable story and a very big upset, it won't be as big an upset as the European Cup win in 1982 but it will feel just as good in some ways to their loyal supporters who have had precious little to celebrate in recent years.

The European cup final was a game that was dominated by Bayern Munich only for  a bit of magic by Tony Morley to ultimately to beat them after Villa's backs had been well and truly against the wall.  It was a smash and grab of seismic proportions.  Could it be a similar outcome on Saturday.

Villa legend Tony Morley's bit of magic was the difference as he set up Peter Withe for the only goal against European heavyweights Bayern |Munich in 1982.

https://youtu.be/m6xSbPjybok Surely the greatest moment in Aston Villa's History!!

Come on you Villians!!

Up the Villa!!  

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!!!