Posted Feb 24th 2007, 10:58am

League Cup legend

Had the pleasure of speaking to a Carling Cup legend this week for a piece on Sky Sports.

As below ...

"For some, the League Cup's reputation has never really repaired itself from its association with electrical retailer Rumbelows - not a name synonymous with class, prestige, or longevity, writes James Evans.

But if you can look past the hovering shadow of its older wiser brother - the FA Cup - and close your ears to irreverent fixture congestion mutterings that emanate from around the Wenger breakfast table, the competition has considerable worth, plus a history that the Champions League can only dream about.

Alan O'Neill was a member of the Aston Villa side that lifted the first ever League Cup, way back in 1961. A scorer, as his side overturned a 2-0 1st-leg defeat at Rotherham United, the affable Geordie spoke to Sky Sportzine about the competition's birth, and scuppers talk of its supposed imminent death.

"People talk about the League Cup maybe going stale these days, but back then it had a reputation too: a suspicious one," O'Neill said.

"No-one really grasped what it was meant to be, and some clubs even chose not to take part as they saw it as just another Cup the Football Association had thrown in. Over the coming years clubs and fans began to accept it but there was excitement right from the start at Villa.

"What with it being a two-legged affair back then, we were confident we could turn around a pretty poor performance up at Rotherham, and so it proved, with me getting the goal to bring it back to 2-2 on aggregate.

"Fans would come out in their droves back then and Villa Park was packed, and the roof went off when Peter McParland grabbed the winner."

Of course, football back in the early 60's was working-class fare. Why, like today's post-match presentations, have vast stages erected on pitches, reams of ticker-tape and a PA system blurting out something resembling the soundtrack to the latest Vin Diesel flick? Back then they didn't even bother with medals...

"It's sounds strange but there were no medals," he continues. "We just got these tankards each, which came on a kind of wooden base. I suppose it would seem funny these days, but they were ideal for the post-match celebrations!"

O'Neill's £90 win bonus was over three times his normal weekly wage of £27.50 - indeed, had Jimmy Hill and co not succeeded in lifting the wage cap in that very same year, it would have taken the Villa man - who went on to play for Plymouth, Bournemouth, Toronto and Vancouver - some 90 years to earn what Chelsea's Michael Ballack pockets in just a week.

"I don't resent the modern-day players any of the money they earn. At the end of the day, they're going to be turning around and thinking 'my club gets £30million for finishing bottom of the Premiership - too right I'm going to ask for a good slice of that'.

"And of course the game has moved on so much it's almost incomparable these days. One thing that never changes though is the football itself, and Sunday should be a great advert for the competition with two top-quality sides.

"People say that the competition is losing its appeal, but the Millennium Stadium is sold out and there will be the usual millions watching it at home, so it's not doing that bad after all.

"As for the match itself, I hope Arsenal win it. They're a bit hit-and-miss at the moment but when they turn it on they are something else, and are playing the best football I've ever seen, and I've played against Pele!"

That meeting with Pele nearly didn't happen. Today's footballers frequently come in for criticism about how much of their time they give back to the game, but as O'Neill explains, the Brazilian wizard's personal demands were quite something else.

"While at Vancouver we had arranged a match against Pele's Santos side. By the time kick-off came around the stadium was full and we were ready to go, but there was no sign of their team.

"The minutes passed and still nothing, and after half-an-hour it was discovered that Pele was refusing to come out until he had received his match fee of $25,000, and was happy to spend the evening in the changing room until it turned up.

"Someone had to head out and return with the money which was handed over in a plastic bag. As if that wasn't strange enough, exactly an hour into the game Pele sauntered to the bench and was substituted as he'd played his allocated sixty minutes, and wasn't going to hang around for a second longer!"

Returning to this Sunday's Cup Final, Alan believes the tactical battle could be fascinating to watch.

"Arsenal obviously want to play openly, though whether they're allowed to is another thing and it will be a real tactical meeting of minds between Mourinho and Wenger. Chelsea can be so defensive; at times they're playing with three strikers, seven defenders and a keeper, as all of their midfield men apart from Frank Lampard can operate as extra centre or full-backs.

"The style obviously works for them, but for pure entertainment and if there's any justice then Arsenal should win."