Brian Dick: Carling Cup has to be the very least of Villa's ambitions
The build-up to this Sunday’s Wembley showpiece, in which Aston Villa have the opportunity to return to the winner’s enclosure for the first time in a generation, has split the city’s footballing church.
In the blue corner are those who denigrate the League Cup - currently known as the Carling Cup, of course - as a meaningless competition, bolted on to the English season by little more than tradition and the lure of a day out in London.
And in the claret, those who hail the sport’s third trophy as an end in itself, a glorious marker in history and an opportunity to write another chapter into an already intriguing story.
For Aston Villa it is neither. Reaching the final against Manchester United, is in itself, of little consequence. Only victory against the current holders would be anything to crow about.
League Cup finals and UEFA Cup football are the minimum the club’s success-starved fans should expect and if we are honest, one FA Cup final and a few flirtations with Europe’s second tier since their last trophy, has left those loyal masses short-changed.
That came in 1996, when Leeds United were overwhelmed by the verve of Savo and Dwight. The Tories were about to leave power, Glenn Hoddle was about to arrive as England manager and most of Brian Little’s Claret and Blue Army could remember the days, 14 years before, when the club ruled the continent.
Wind the clock 14 years on, to the present day, and the chances of that seem just as remote as the memory of Peter Withe’s goal. Yet that must remain the target.
Yes, Little’s team lifted the trophy at the home of football, with a 3-0 victory that was remarkable both for the ease with which Villa swept aside what was supposed to be a superior Leeds team and the fact that the Yorkshiremen allowed them to do it.
But what happened after that sunny March afternoon was the stuff of disaster and if there is a repeat, Martin O’Neill’s men could beat United 10-0 this weekend and still the hollow feeling of underachievement will remain.
Make no mistake, they have a chance of winning too. With Jonny Evans and Wes Brown at the heart of the Man United defence, O’Neill will surely play two up front and unleash Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor on a flimsy rearguard.
