To be honest it matters little to me that we lost. It may sound weird but it's true and It'll tell you why. We played very very well - a team effort where everyone gave their all. With a little luck we could have won, but in stead we ended up losers in the end. Well the performance will make the players believe we can beat United. If we play like this at Villa Park - we have a decent chance of going to Wembley. Conceding a late goal is - hopefully - a lesson learnt for Villa park. With Kalou's goal in the back of their heads, the players are more likely to concentrate 100% untill the final whistle rather than the 90 minutes. Also, us fans have seen what the boys CAN do when everything works. Stats-wise we stood up to Chelski - we matched them. The reigning champions. And the fans now know what we are capable of - something we may not quite have known untill now. The loss to Chelski can turn out to be an investment for the FA cup. Let's make sure it is.
I don't know about teaching us anything about conceding late goals - it's like we've been on open university course on late goals this year - bolton, fulham, sheff u, charlton, portsmouth, newcastle (league and league cup) all spring to mind. but i agree with you about instilling belief before villa park.
Although we lost..... It was yet another excellent performance, and if we accept that we were almost definitely down even before the game, which I think most of us do :sad3:, the silver lining is that at least we didn't help Man u to win the title :sign13:
