February 25 – Worthy Winners? | On This Football Day

February 25 – Worthy Winners?

THERE was a time in the not too distant past when the much-maligned League Cup was the one chance some of the smaller clubs in the land had of bagging some sliverware.

Before it was treated as a chance to get an early trophy under their belts by Chelsea, and a nursery for Arsene Wenger’s youth team, the competition was largely ignored by many of the big hitters as they concentrated on frying the bigger fish of the Premier League, FA Cup and Europe.

On this day in 2001 Division One Birmingham City made it to (what was then called) the Worthington Cup Final where they faced a Liverpool side which had gone six years without honours.

The match, held at the Millennium Stadium, was to be the first cup final in English football to be decided by a penalty shootout.

Liverpool took an early lead through Robbie Fowler and looked set to win until referee David Ellary awarded the Blues a penalty in the second minute of injury time which Darren Purse duly dispatched to send the game into extra time.

As so often seems to be the way extra time did not produce a winner leaving the lottery of the penalty shootout to decide the tie.

Only Dietmar Hamann missed his spot kick for Liverpool as Sander Westerveld saved from Martin Grainger and a young Andy Johnson to hand the trophy to Gerard Houllier’s side.

Houllier said at the time: “They say the first trophy is always the hardest to win,” and just to prove his point he went and won two more that very season as they also lifted the FA and Uefa Cups to complete a sort of poor-man’s treble.

Meanwhile Birmingham City were left to ponder the misfortune of losing out on penalties in their first chance of a major trophy since 1963.

Birmingham City manager Trevor Francis was in tears after the match. He said: “I thought we were going to win it. We were hungrier, stronger. Maybe their recent schedule had taken it out of their legs, but we were the dominant force.

“I said before the game that if we came off the field without any regrets I would be satisfied, and in that sense I am, but we’re all bitterly disappointed to have lost on penalties.”

The Blues would be back in Cardiff the following season under Steve Bruce where this time the penalty shootout was their friend as they beat Norwich in the play-off final to secure promotion to the Premiership.

After waiting so long for a penalty-decided cup final, English football would not have to wait too long for the second which arrived in the form of an FA Cup final in 2005 in which Arsenal defeated Manchester United on pens after the Red Devils had largely dominated the game.

As ever, more from us tomorrow sports fans so log on, tune in and cop out then.