Cardiff City

0-1

Portsmouth

 

 

Kanu 37

The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
The Final
3pm, Saturday 17 May 2008
Wembley Stadium
Winning clubs will receive £1,000,000 from The FA



Cardiff City boss Dave Jones was proud of his Bluebirds side, despite losing The FA Cup Final to Portsmouth at Wembley.

Jones saw his side fall behind to a Kanu goal in the 37th minute, when the Nigerian capitalised on a mistake by Cardiff goalkeeper Peter Enckelman, and they were unable to reply.
 
"A slight mistake cost us, we gave it everything we've got and we've done everyone proud," he said after the final whistle.

"What we have done today is prove that maybe other teams can achieve what they thought was impossible.

"I'm very proud of my players, my staff, the chairman, and especially the fans. They have been magnificent and I'm just sad we couldn't see it through to the death for them.

"There wasn't a great deal in it, there's no-one to blame, but it's hard to swallow."

Jones believes the run to The Final should be a springboard for the club to now mount a challenge for promotion to the Premier League.

"It has to be," he admitted. 

"We've struggled for two years, no money for the last two years.

"We've now got a brand-new stadium, fantastic training facilities and if we don't move on from here, we want shooting."

Meanwhile, Enckelman couldn't hide his disappointment at not being able to have prevented Kanu's winner.

"It was a tough one to deal with," he admitted.

"It just started dropping down and I should maybe have done better but it is one of those things.

"The defence could maybe have cleared it, I thought I might try to catch it. It just dropped over.

"It just wasn't to be but it's been fantastic.

"Look at the fans. We have lost the game but they are still cheering us on."

Teams

Cardiff City
1 Peter Enckelman, 2 Kevin McNaughton, 3 Tony Capaldi, 4 Gavin Rae (18 Trevor Sinclair 87), 6 Glenn Loovens, 7 Peter Whittingham (30 Aaron Ramsey 62), 10 Stephen McPhail, 11 Paul Parry, 12 Roger Johnson, 16 Joe Ledley, 36 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (20 Steven Thompson 71)

Subs
13 Michael Oakes, 5 Darren Purse

Portsmouth
1 David James, 5 Glen Johnson, 6 Lassana Diarra, 7 Hermann Hreidarsson, 11 Sulley Muntari, 15 Sylvain Distin, 17 John Utaka (10 David Nugent 69), 19 Niko Kranjcar, 23 Sol Campbell, 27 Nwankwo Kanu (9 Milan Baros 87), 30 Pedro Mendes (8 Papa Boupa Diop 78)

Substitutes Not Used
21 Jamie Ashdown, 16 Noe Pamarot

Attendance: 89,874

Match Officials
Referee: Mike Dean (Cheshire FA)
Assistant Referees: Trevor Massey (Manchester FA) & Martin Yerby (Kent FA)
Fourth Official: Chris Foy (Liverpool FA)