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Final Details

Chelsea

(Di Matteo)

De Goey, Melchiot, Desailly, Leboeuf, Babayaro, Poyet, Wise, Deschamps, Di Matteo, Zola (Morris), Weah (Flo)

Aston Villa

James, Delaney, Ehiogu, Southgate, Barry, Wright (Hendrie), Boateng, Merson, Taylor (Stone), Carbone (Joachim), Dublin

Referee: G Poll

By Colin Malam (Courtesy of the Electronic Telegraph)

THESE two famous clubs could not make the 72nd, and last, FA Cup Final at the old Wembley Stadium one of the best; but at least they prevented it from being remembered as the worst. Even that did not seem possible following a first half of quite dreadful quality.

Thankfully, however, a vast improvement after the interval brought a more acceptable level of entertainment and a deserved winning goal by Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo.

That strike by Di Matteo, who also scored the quickest goal in an FA Cup final when Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in 1997, proved sufficient for his club to take the trophy and qualify for next season's UEFA Cup. But, in truth, the Londoners' collection of classy foreigners were toying for most of the second half with Villa, whose dubious consolation prize is the entry into the InterToto Cup.

It was not difficult before the start to tell the rival supporters apart, and not just by the colours they were wearing. Having not attended this event since 1957, when their team overcame the emerging Busby Babes of Manchester United 2-1, the Villa fans were much the noisier and more excited. By comparison, the sophisticates of Chelsea, here only three years ago to see their heroes beat Middlesbrough 2-0, seemed positively blasé.

There was certainly a marked difference between the two starting line-ups. While Villa's included eight Englishmen, there was only one, captain Dennis Wise, in the Chelsea ranks. The London club compensated to some extent by naming three others, Jody Morris, John Terry and Jon Harley, as substitutes on a bench that, rather surprisingly, did not contain a fourth, £10 million striker Chris Sutton.

Equally surprising was the decision by Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli not to start with his regular attacking partnership of Tore Andre Flo and Gianfranco Zola. Zola was there for the kick-off, but he had veteran Liberian international George Weah alongside him instead of Flo, who was on the bench. Perhaps it was seen as a last chance for Weah, 33 and on loan from AC Milan, to play in an FA Cup final.

George Boateng, one of the few foreigners in the Villa side, had given advance warning of his intent to match the aggression and industry of Wise in midfield. So it should have come as no surprise when, after only two minutes' play, the powerful young Dutchman shook the Chelsea captain with a crunching tackle that referee Graham Poll felt deserving only of a warning.

The first serious attack of a poor first half, coming after 10 minutes, showed that the little England international had suffered no serious damage. When Gareth Southgate headed out a Zola centre, Wise met the clearance with a ferocious volley that goalkeeper David James clutched to his midriff.

That, sadly, was just about the only moment of real excitement the packed house was offered before the interval. There were plenty of bookings, but very few other scoring attempts. Villa's Gareth Barry and Chelsea's Mario Melchiot were cautioned for fouls on each other and Wise, surprise, surprise, was shown the yellow card for a spot of sly retaliation on Boateng.

But, with both sides giving the ball away with depressing regularity and the defences on top, the volley Paul Merson curled speculatively past the right-hand angle of the Chelsea goal after 25 minutes was the only other scoring attempt that carried any kind of threat.

The start of the second half was much more promising. Whatever the two managers said during the break - and one cannot imagine it was very complimentary to their players - produced three scoring chances in the first four minutes. Almost immediately, Ian Taylor and Southgate headed wide from crosses by Alan Wright and Merson, then Weah shot a foot wide at the other end.

The Liberian was given a sight of goal, first by Didier Deschamps, and then by Zola, who threaded the ball through to him in a shooting position. It was the beginning of a period of Chelsea supremacy, during which they put the ball in the Villa net without reward, Weah being given offside after Wise had been quick to punish James's fumble as the goalkeeper tried to deal with a pass from Di Matteo.

Weah had two chances to atone quickly for his unfortunate part in Chelsea's disallowed goal. However, he was guilty of poor finishing from six yards out at the far post as he met the centre Zola curled cunningly in from the right; then, when the ball sat up kindly for him in a goalmouth tussle with Ugo Ehiogu, James came rushing off his line to block the Chelsea striker's attempt to flick a shot over the goalkeeper.

The lead the London club took after 72 minutes was deserved, therefore. Again James erred, again the ball was put away from close range, but this time there was no infringement of the laws. When James came roaring off his line to deal with Zola's free-kick from the left, he fumbled the ball against Southgate's chest and they could only watch in horror as Di Matteo blasted the rebound into the roof of the net. Benito Carbone should have equalised three minutes later in a situation similar to the one from which Di Matteo had scored, but he failed abysmally. Ed de Goey's failure to catch a Merson free-kick cleanly left Villa's little Italian striker with a clear view of goal. He struck the ball so weakly with his left foot, though, that Frank Leboeuf was able to clear off the line quite comfortably.

Villa manager John Gregory rang the changes in the last 12 minutes as his team searched desperately for an eqauliser. But the introduction of Steve Stone, Julian Joachim and Lee Hendrie for Taylor, Carbone and Wright yielded just one more scoring chance, Ehiogu heading the ball over the crossbar when he needed to direct it across goal to the better-placed Dion Dublin.

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