Any particular reasons for winning the fa cup

[supertom]

In my time as a Villa fan from 90 onwards I've seen us go close to two league titles. I've seen us winning two league cups which were both fantastic days. In 2000 we had a good side. The manner in which we beat Leeds that year and then coming through a Penalty shootout in the Semi, you could almost be forgiven for thinking our name was on the cup, but the final, the last at the Old Wembley was a damp squib. Chelsea were poor, but we were wretched. Absolutely no attacking intent. Merson and Carbone who had lit up the that Leeds tie just couldn't impact on the game. Gregory showed no adventure at all.
We've got some FA Cup demons to bury this century. You just never know when our next chance might be. We haven't won since 57, but we haven't been in too many FA Cup finals since either. A competition that we used to be synonymous with (granted over a hundred years ago). We should be getting closer. I want to be getting to FA Cup finals and winning it every now and again, like our record in the League Cup in the last 20 odd years. 2 wins and a further final.

On a personal level winning this would top everything I've experienced as a Villa fan. I was two young to appreciate the European Cup, as proud as I am it's part of our history. I want that great feeling again. Going into a game as underdog and coming out on top. My best football experience was the 94 League Cup. I want that feeling again. The Leeds win 2 years later was great, but also felt expected. I went into that game very confident we'd win the trophy as we were the better side.

The pressure is all on Arsenal, and no other club at the moment feels a greater pressure to win trophies than Arsenal. They've bottled finals in the immediate past. They made hard work of beating Hull last year. They weren't convincing against Reading.  The pressure to win this trophy twice in a row is huge. Arsenal will be feeling it. We have a great chance if we approach the game right. Adventurous but sensible at the back. Southampton must be a lesson learned. We've got nothing to lose. If we lose it then everyone just says "ah well, that was to be expected." We don't have to feel the pressure. Arsenal do. They'd gone so long without a trophy. But that demand from their fans is still there. They expect silverware year on year. They have a sense of entitlement about it.

[villalion]

Because I am out celebrating my 40th next Saturday.

[hipkiss92]

I was 3 the last time we won anything. Would be nice to experience it for myself.

[DeKuip]

It's time.

[Comrade Blitz]

For Mrs Blitz

[remy]

The euphoria that surrounded the 96 cup win (the year I got married) is still with me today - so is the wife.

To have the name Aston Villa resonate around the world, around the country,
to have the claret and blue ribbons adorn that silver trophy,
to cry uncontrollably when Delph raises the cup aloft (as Prince William passes it to him),
to have the cup parade around Birmingham city centre,
to get every single newspaper on the Monday with a 50 page special in the Birmingham Mail,
to be on a high that simply never wanes, payback for the 7-1 and 8-0 defeats that pained me so much, 
to be given the perfect 40th birthday present by winning the FA Cup,
to walk around with a Cup Winners shirt from 2015,
to say to every other football fan - we're back!.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Because it will put us up to 3rd equal and just 4 more cup wins off being clear top again, which is where we were when I started watching The Villa. 

[liam]

For me its for my kids- both been season ticket holders since the age of 6 the one is now 15 and the other 11 - they have seen us lose in 2010 and cried walking out of Wembley, they have heard all the stories about how great Aston Villa is a football club, they have the mick took out of them from the kids that support who ever is top of the league and they have never seen us win anything..... Its for them, to know what its like to see our captain lift a cup and turn towards the supporters, that we are important, that we played our part. To wear their top the next day/week/month chest puffed out. To go to the parade and see the city full of claret and blue.

The youngest said at Christmas time how rubbish we were, and why couldn't I have made him a fan of a team that wins things.... A week on Saturday I hope he understands that he does.

This is for the next generation of Villa fans.

[castlefields_villan]

My Dad went in 57 with all his friends, many of whom are dead now and I've always wanted to be able to say we won it before he pops his clogs too - he is now in his mid 80s. My biggest regret is we never won it in the 70s or 80s as I think it was much more iconic and a big deal then than it is now when it has been so devalued by the kick off time and other games taking place at the same time (not this season of course). I would have loved us to win it in those halycon days of the mid to late 70s when the whole nation used to stop and watch it and talk about it. By contrast, I have barely watched the last two cup finals. I could you tell all the results and scorers of every cup final from 1970 up to about 1990 but very few from then on when it just became a blur of endless Arsenal/Man Utd/Liverpool/Chelsea combinations - or so it seems in my mind, though probably isn't true

Fully agree with your comments Richard:  I was born in August 1957, and have grown weary of us not having won the FA Cup in my lifetime (on earth that is - I can claim to being minus 3 months old I suppose).

All my family on both sides are steeped in Villa tradition - dating back at least the best part of 100 years and probably longer.  Older generations of my family were there in 57, but my mum couldn't go because she was 6 months pregnant with me - apparently she told me - years after - she was so tired that when she sat down to watch the game she fell asleep and missed it (obviously no pause button and digital recorders then !!).  That remained a secret between us for years as she said no-one would believe her if she told them.  I probably would've been about 12 or 13 when she told me (about 1969-1970 ish) and I remember saying "don't worry mum - we'll win it again soon.  Sadly we never did and she took "her secret" to her grave 3 years ago.  No doubt she'll be up in the sky, with everyone else in my family, up there looking down next weekend and cheering as the "endless wait" finally comes to and end - "he who waits" etc..

Like you - and any other  middle aged supporter, I just need the FA Cup to complete the set, and how wonderful it would have been to have done it in the late 70s/early 80s when it really was the one day when the whole country came to a standstill because the FA Cup Final had the whole day it itself (and indeed live coverage on all the only 3 TV channels that were there back in the day).

Come on boys - whichever 14 of you are Tim's choice for the day - there's a lot of people with a lot of emotion needing to released and we're all dependant on YOU.

VTID

[NeilH]

The FA Cup is the oldest and still is the best cup competition in the world, some of my very earliest childhood memories are of FA Cup Final day. As a Villa fan I would dream every year of taking that magical walk down Wembley way, singing Abide with Me with my fellow fans and seeing that famous trophy draped in Claret and Blue ribbons.
Even through the heady days of ‘81 and ’82, there still remained that niggling feeling in my head of ‘yeah but it’s not the FA Cup.’ Even winning the league didn’t have that euphoria, as it’s a gradual process.
When we reached the final in 2000, I sensed a lifetime’s dream within my grasp, but at the same time knew that our semi-final performance stacked the odds against us. In many ways, 2000 was one of the best football experiences of my life and also the worst. Drinking with Villa fans in West Hamstead pre-match, singing Abide with Me; even waving at Doug from the stands are unforgettable memories for me. The miserable feeling of walking out of Wembley post-match to the sounds of singing Chelsea fans and the miserable journey home is something I still remember (Oddly I have little or no memory of the actual game).
I have long said that winning this trophy has long been the sole prize for me, sure I’ve seen us lift trophies at Wembley, but the magic of this cup is almost mythological with me. So in a week or so time, I will once again wake up early and make the trip to Wembley Stadium (Bit further than Stevenage this time mind). Once again I will dare to dream of seeing us lift it and should we do it, I know one thing for sure and that is that it will mean more to me than anything we’ve won before and every single moment of supporting Villa through more thin than thick will be justified.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

I haven't seen us win a trophy yet, this feels like the right time to change that.

[castlefields_villan]

For some reason - the 2000 game just seemed to come and go - and strange as it seems apart from that tackle on Boeteng early on and James' clanger to gift them the winning goal, I struggle to remember much about the game itself - before and after is still vivid, but the whole game was such a non-event for us.

This year, I'll probably be watching on my own in my place in Wales - wife and everyone else got to back to work after the bank holiday and I'll probably have the rest of the week there on my own - bliss though - the TV will go on when I get up and other than the obvious call of nature I won't move from in front of it - I intend to remember everything of this day - as I do of a certain other day in May when we took a trip across the water to Rotterdam - I remember just about EVERYTHING from that the 2 days it took going and coming back.

We just need to be able to start singing "EIGHT times we've won it etc etc etc"

[Lastfootstamper]

Because I'm a glory hunter, ever since my Welsh grandad's tales of the Mighty Aston Villa pervaded my infant consciousness some nigh-on fifty years ago. And to me, this competition is the point of it all. It was the original competition in the game, and we'd won it more times than anyone else. Season tickets, News And Record vouchers, all repeatedly in the hope of being there on, and the chilling dread of missing, the day when I could see The Villa win The Cup. It's my Villa raison d'être.

[richard moore]

I haven't seen us win a trophy yet, this feels like the right time to change that.

I think that is so important. I was at Highbury, in Rotterdam, at Swindon, in Blackpool and at Wembley for all the finals we won up to 2000, but for me it is all about our fans under the age of 20, which you must just about be Bosko, seeing us win things and being successful. As I walked out of Wembley after the semi, I saw loads of children (not meaning you Bosko) in the full kit with the painted faces and reflected on how they must associate Villa with the bottom of half of the Premier League and how wrong that is. I even see it in my two daughters, aged 16 and 20, who seem amazed if I tell them we beat Spurs or Liverpool or Arsenal, as if that could never happen and how dare we do so.

[castlefields_villan]

Season tickets, News And Record vouchers, all repeatedly in the hope of being there on, and the chilling dread of missing, the day when I could see The Villa win The Cup.

The MAIN reason I got a season ticket in my years of being a season ticket holder in the 70s, 80s and 90s was because the thought of missing a BIG Villa game was unthinkable - I remember being more than a little annoyed when I couldn't get a ticket for Cambridge away in the 4th Round of the FA Cup in 1980.  Prior to that I always used to get 2 programmes for every home game.  We have to win next week for a million and one reasons.