Your biggest let down as a Villa fan

[Damo70]

Games against the shite between 2002-2005. The cup loss against them in 2010
The 2 1 defeat to away to albion in 2011 - they were a man down and we should have strolled it.
2000 cup final and 2015 cup final
The Bradford defeat, Millwall defeat and letting a 2 goal lead against Albion in the space of 6 days
The Bolton semi final defeat

We threw that Bolton League Cup semi final away with a pathetic no show in the first leg.

[itbrvilla]

2000 FA cup final. Nothing comes close.

[Deano's Mullet]

Losing the 2018 play off final was gutting seeing as I went to that one but couldn't get a ticket for the following years game vs Derby. I had a great day at Wembley and in the pubs in 2018 but the match itself was disappointing to say the least.

[Damo70]

Losing the 2018 play off final was gutting seeing as I went to that one but couldn't get a ticket for the following years game vs Derby. I had a great day at Wembley and in the pubs in 2018 but the match itself was disappointing to say the least.

Fulham should have been down to ten men in that game.

[olaftab]

Stan Collymore. And the week when Lambert knocked us out of both cups to Bradford and Millwall.

[West Derby Villan]

2000 cup final, there for the taking

[curiousorange]

2000 Cup Final will always be top, now and forever.

[Rory]

I've put a lot of thought into this, so apologies if it's tedious.

My 25 years have been a near-constant stream of hundreds of weekly let-downs; countless weekends ruined. But I think if I had to pick, my biggest was losing to SHA in the League Cup in 2010/11.

After the final the year before, I genuinely felt positive (not only because that was the day I met my now-fiancee) because I thought it was normal service being resumed; the first final of many.

It both did and didn't matter that it was SHA we lost to in 2010/11. It wasn't from 'rivalry' because I congratulated my Nose mates when they won the final, but losing to them specifically signified to me that we'd lost a certain edge or competitiveness.

From that game on, until Dean took over, I just didn't feel like I could put my faith in us to be up for the challenge on any given day. We can say what we like about MON and Deano, but I don't believe we would've lost that game under either.

Obviously Arsenal are the least reliable club in the world unless they're playing us, so we almost certainly would've lost the final 7-0 anyway. But after the feeling around '07-'10 that we'd always at least be up for the 'big games', even if we were outclassed or outdone tactically, that game felt like a watershed moment and the only one that I really do hold against Houllier.

In summary, reaching the 2010 League Cup final felt like a final exorcism of the mediocrity of the early 21st century. Losing hurt, but 'no matter, there's always next year'. However, the next year I suddenly realised that we hadn't come that far, and hadn't achieved anything tangible whatsoever.

That, for me, was the most difficult thing to reconcile. Credit to Blose, they won that cup fair and square, but a no-mark outfit like that going one further than we managed to, only one year later and having beaten us on the way, was one hell of a fucking let-down.

[Villan82]

2000 FA Cup final. I thought our name was on it that year. We were a top side and had been for five or six seasons. We had won the League Cup at Wembley twice in the 90s. I was convinced that we would win. The build up was electric.

But the game, which I have never watched back, was a complete and utter let down. I don't remember any specifics but on that day I was gutted beyond words. None of our disappointments since that day even comes close.

[Dick Edwards]

Another vote for the 2000 FA Cup Final. I met Johnny Dixon before the game, the last Villa captain to lift the Cup. I had a fantastic seat close to the Royal Box. It would have been amazing to be so close to our captain being presented with the Cup. Instead my abiding memory of the day was  of  the sickening Dennis Wise walking up the steps with his baby.
I loved John Gregory overall but his tactics that day did for us.

[OzVilla]

Not winning the PL in 92/93 and the 2000 FA Cup Final.

The former I was devastated about as we were bloody good all season and just didn't get the breaks in those last 5/6 matches. What could've been had we won that.

The latter we were just dreadful. A horrid experience.

[JD]

Apart from the 2000 FA Cup final, selling off the Champions of Europe team instead of continuing to build it. It is so sad how quickly it was dismantled. FFS, we ruled Europe.

[KevinGage]

Oldham on the plastic pitch FA Cup QF away in 1990.

We pushed Liverpool close for most of that season in the league but I wouldn't go as far as to say we should've won it (who knows if we'd signed Sheringham instead of Cantscorino though).

But a second division team in the QF is as good a chance as you'll get to make the semis.  And Yanited (and Palarse after that) were no great shakes back then.

Hindsight being 20/20 vision n'all but: Win that and 'Fergie on the dole' becomes reality.  No ECWC for them in 1991 and all the other bollocks that's followed since.

If our team of 1990 wasn't quite as good as a Liverpool team that has dominated for years, a team containing McGrath, Platt, Cowans and Daley close to their best should certainly have won something that season.

[Nev]

Losing the league to Newton Heath, I absolutely detested them and to have us, of all teams be the one they beat to their first title in 26 years was galling, not to mention what has followed since.

But that is nothing compared to the 2 FA Cup Final losses. I hope it will be exorcised but if not I will go to my grave carrying that awful, hollow feeling of not only losing but not even turning in anything like an acceptable performance.

[LeeB]

Oldham on the plastic pitch FA Cup QF away in 1990.

We pushed Liverpool close for most of that season in the league but I wouldn't go as far as to say we should've won it (who knows if we'd signed Sheringham instead of Cantscorino though).

But a second division team in the QF is as good a chance as you'll get to make the semis.  And Yanited (and Palarse after that) were no great shakes back then.

Hindsight being 20/20 vision n'all but: Win that and 'Fergie on the dole' becomes reality.  No ECWC for them in 1991 and all the other bollocks that's followed since.

If our team of 1990 wasn't quite as good as a Liverpool team that has dominated for years, a team containing McGrath, Platt, Cowans and Daley close to their best should certainly have won something that season.

That was the only game I missed from Christmas that season, because I had City Cup semi-final for the school that afternoon. We lost 4-0 to Edmund Campion and went home to listen to that horror.

It's pretty high up the list for me too.

The final was at Villa Park.