Matt Maher: It's about time someone ended the West Midlands' trophy drought

Try telling Newcastle supporters the Carabao Cup doesn’t matter.

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Published 3 hours ago

[VILLA/LEEDS 7 DH] Caption: COCA COLA LEAGUE CUP FINAL, ASTON VILLA V LEEDS UNITED.............ANDY TOWNSEND AND DWIGHT YORKE HOLD THE CUP AS VILLA CELEBRATE THEIR VICTORY.......SPORT PIC Byline: Macintosh HD Credit: DAVID HAMILTON Object name: VILLA/LEEDS 7 DH Category: Caption writer: 8BIM Original transmission reference: .1247 Special instructions: PIC FOR SPORT.................. City: WEMBLEY Originating Program: 8BIM Date: 25/3/96 Time: 1:13:53 am

For the second time in three seasons, the Magpies stand just one match from winning the competition and ending one of English football’s most infamous trophy droughts.

Not since 1969 have they lifted silverware and even now, there is a debate as to just how “major” the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup really was. Most fans under the age of 50 will probably never have heard of it.

For a serious domestic trophy, you have to go back 70 years to 1955, when a 3-1 win over Manchester City at Wembley took the FA Cup back to Tyneside.

In the period since, Villa have won an FA Cup, a league title, a European Cup and the League Cup no fewer than five times.

Yet the most recent of those triumphs was in 1996 and their current wait for a major trophy is comfortably the club’s longest since the Second World War.

In regional terms, sadly, Villa are hardly alone. Blues’ 2011 League Cup win represents the only major silverware won by a West Midlands club in almost three decades.