Despite one of the most farcical construction projects ever, the old Wembley stadium was demolished and rebuilt in between this and our last cup final. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since that FA Cup final. Football is different. Aston Villa is very different.
For these reasons, and an almost infinite number of others, and I doubt I was alone here, I found myself almost overcome with emotion and pride as I watched
Well, we lost. Not worth adding much more at the moment, except to say how proud I am of the team and how proud I am to be a Villa fan. Good effort lads, there will be more trips to Wembley I’m sure. It just wasn’t to be this time.
I suppose I’d have to admit that UtD did rattled the wood work on a couple of occasions and we didn’t really threaten the Utd goal beyond James Milner’s penalty, but
Live blog below the fold.
Carling Cup Final – Man Utd vs Aston Villa
Some pictures of last minute preparations at Wembley ahead of our Carling Cup Final against Man Utd tomorrow courtesy of Carling.
First View Of Wembley
Filming Football Focus
Final Touches To The Aston Villa Bench
The Tunnel
Hospitality
Utd Player Mural – Holding Area
Villa Player Mural – Holding Area
National Anthem Rehearsal
Wembley or Wimbledon?
Titans
Big Screen
Press Box
View From The Press Box
Fan Messages
@Umbro Arrives
@Rakey Almost There
I’m going to leave this post open and at the top of the home page all the way up until we get the team news for the Carling Cup Final on Sunday. I’ll drop links to all the latest news and opinion that attracts my attention on the wires and feeds, with the most recent at the top. Feel free to draw my attention to anything I miss.
I’m not completely sure how I’m going to handle the match
I know Twitter isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but you ought to know by now that I’m a big fan. Some people seemingly just want to use it as an additional method of publishing their blogs, and it is good for that, but I prefer to look at it as two-way communication. For me, it’s about having a conversation and that’s the theme of this Follow Friday Team of the Week on the last Friday before our Carling
As you’re hopefully aware (because I told you on Wednesday if you bothered to pay attention), Aston Villa made the trip down to London yesterday. Since they’ve effectively started the preparation for Sunday’s final, I figured I might as well follow suit.
Stiliyan Petrov deserves a special mention. He was sent home suffering a virus prior to Wednesday’s FA Cup match with Crystal Palace and there’s been some speculation since then that he may not make the final.
I have @usofarsenal to thank for bringing this to my attention. Well, maybe ‘thank’ isn’t the right word, but to be honest; I’m really not sure yet. One thing’s for certain, our trip to Wembley is bringing the musical, er, talent out of the woodwork.
I’m actually leaning towards this being so random that it might just be brilliant. I stress might. It’s definitely better than that X-Factor horror show though!
From the video’s description:-
Althea Gaye and Ray
Aston Villa made sure of their place in the quarter finals in the FA Cup with a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Villa Park tonight with a steady, professional performance.
Gabby got the first just before half time with a header from a corner that Neil Warnock may well have something to say about again. Palace got their goal from the spot after Warnock brought down Alan Lee in the box with just less than 20 minutes to go.
In