For quite some time it looked like the changes would work - Aaron Ramsey again showed what a great prospect he was when he beat a defender and put over a brilliant cross with the outside of his right foot to lay a goal on a plate for Gavin Rae after 37 minutes, but Ipswich cranked up the pressure after the break and young substitute Jordan Rhodes' first ever goal ensured that the game finished in a draw - a result which didn't really do either side much good. That said, City would have taken that outcome over the defeat that looked likely when Danny Haynes found the net in injury time only for the goal to be controversially, but correctly, disallowed by referee Booth for a push on Loovens by DeVos.
Given what had happened six days earlier at Wembley and the fact that City were unbeaten in nine matches, you would have expected that there would have been more than 14,715 there to greet the team on their return to Ninian Park for their penultimate home game of the season against Blackpool. The absentees missed what turned out to be a pretty comfortable win which started off with yet another candidate for City goal of the season when Steve McPhail volleyed in a half clearance from nearly thirty yards on seven minutes. After that, City had to withstand a fair bit of pressure from the visitors, but, when they upped the tempo in the early stages of the second half, Blackpool couldn't live with them and a first ever City league goal by Trevor Sinclair against the club he started off his career with and a fine finish by Whittingham after he was set up by Ramsey put the result beyond doubt. The last twenty five minutes saw a run out for young Jon Brown and a consolation goal for substitute Morrell, but Blackpool were a well beaten side by the end of the match.
City were now faced with a make or break run of three away matches and, with a weeks gap between games, the first of these at already relegated Scunthorpe looked odds on to provide a first away league win in 2008. However, it was now that City's recent outstanding defensive record (they had conceded just four goals in the last ten games) fell apart as they waved goodbye to hopes of Premiership football in 2008/09.
When Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ended a poor first half by scoring from a Ledley pass City seemed to be on their way to victory, but, with hindsight, the game turned a few minutes after the break when the striker hit the post with an easier chance. Scunthorpe grabbed the lifeline they had been given so effectively that they were ahead within minutes as City conceded a soft equaliser when Hayes scored from a near post corner and then Hurst sidefooted home from close range. City responded well to falling behind with a quality goal from outside the box by the reliable Ledley within three minutes. However, despite much pressure, they couldn't come up with that winning goal and, knowing that a draw wasn't good enough, they were caught out in added time when the home team counter attacked and Loovens brought down full back Williams for a penalty which Hayes knocked past Enckelman.
I have already mentioned things like our lack of away wins contributing to our final position, well this latest defeat only brought home how poorly we did against sides struggling at the foot of the table - for example, in six matches against the sides who were relegated at the end of the campaign we only managed one win, three draws and two defeats.
What could have been a Play Off shootout with Wolves at Molineux three days later now became a meaningless end of season match - at least, that what it was for City! Wolves, on the other hand, were in desperate need of all three points and it showed in a game in which City weaved plenty of pretty patterns in the middle of the pitch only to fall to what was, with the game at Charlton, their heaviest defeat of the season as first half goals by Keogh and Ebanks-Blake and one after the break from Kightly (who was making a return from a long term injury) consigned them to a 3-0 beating.
On the face of it, the last away match of the season at Burnley offered little to look forward to with the home side having long since dropped out of Play Off contention and the City looking to avoid injuries for the Cup Final, but the game turned out to be a very entertaining one with a particualrly controversial end to it.
There was little sign of the fireworks to come in a first half that saw Burnley take the lead when referee Hall rightly ignored a linesman's flag and allowed Alexander's well struck volley to stand. However things really livened up after the break when Andrew (must remember to call him Andrew not Andy!) Cole tapped in a second from Blake's cross to make it 2-0 on fifty four minutes. City, with sub Ledley leading the way, responded so well that they were level within a quarter of an hour - they were given a soft looking penalty when Jordan was adjudged to have brought down Sinclair which Ledley put away and then the same player provided the ammunition for Ramsey to smash a powerfully struck second past Jensen for his first ever league goal. Having done well to get back into the match, the City then looked to have thrown it away again when Carlisle scored with a header four minutes from the end, but there was still time for home captain Caldwell to turn Whittingham's cross into his own net as he was put under pressure by Thompson.
At 3-3, that represented the end of the scoring, but the fun was only just starting as Purse ploughed into Cole as the match went into added time. In my opinion, television pictures showed that the challenge was clumsy rather than malicious, but with Cole having suffered a leg injury that left a gaping wound, the red card given to our captain seemed a fair one. What was beyond argument though was that Cole was incensed and the game finished as ten against ten as he followed Purse down the player's tunnel clearly intent on revenge. For a while things threatened to turn really ugly as players from the bench and backroom staff got involved as well, but reports after the game suggested that there had been no major incident. However, Andy (sorry, Andrew!) Cole was clearly not happy and, in a post match rant, called Darren Purse a "muppet" and said that, if he only played two games next season, he hoped it would be the ones against Cardiff!
There was an unusual postscript to the whole affair when City's appeal against the red card (Purse would have missed the Cup Final) was upheld by the Welsh FA and the three game suspension overturned - as I mentioned before, the tackle seemed clumsy rather than intentional, but this was still a baffling decision as far as plenty of people (myself included) were concerned.
All that was left of the league campaign now was a home game with Barnsley who had ensured their survival in the Championship following their Semi Final defeat. The fact that the game meant very little to them showed as they were brushed aside by a City side that many, correctly, surmised would be the starting line up at Wembley (as it turned out the five subs named for this game were the same for the Cup Final as well). City's 3-0 win came courtesy of goals from the returning Paul Parry just before the break, a freakish Kevin McNaughton goal, which owed much to keeper Steele, on forty nine minutes and a simple finish by Joe Ledley a quarter of an hour later - as Ledley had switched to left back to replace the substituted Tony Capaldi at the time, can anyone remember when both City full backs scored in a game because I can't!
City finished their league season in their usual mid table position under Dave Jones - this time they were in twelfth spot with sixty four points, but with seventy points being enough to get into the top six, my overriding feeling about the Championship campaign is still one of "if only"!
The couple of weeks before we played Portsmouth passed very slowly, but what I regarded as maybe the biggest day in the club's history eventually came around as a miserable and rainy day that would not stop the hordes of supporters of two clubs who were not used to such occasions from enjoying their big day out.
Having made the decision to miss the Semi Final in favour of getting a season ticket for 2008/09, I was paying my first visit to Wembley and my overriding impression of the area was what a dump! The new stadium though was much more impressive (although I wouldn't say it was any better than the Millennium Stadium) and, although I didn't really know what a Cup Final felt like, I did know that it didn't feel like one outside the stadium but it certainly did inside it.
Lovers of Wembley tradition would not have enjoyed the rendition of Abide With Me before the match and many would have found the booing by some of both of the National Anthems offensive, but, for me, these were minor distractions in the countdown to a match that I never thought I would see Cardiff City take part in during my lifetime.
Finally, the game was under way and, to their eternal credit, it was City who were the team who were set on attacking their supposed betters. When you considered how important early goals were in the victories over Wolves, Middlesbrough and Barnsley, perhaps it wasn't surprising that City wanted to force the issue, but it still took a lot of guts to do that on such a big stage.
For twenty minutes or so, City were definitely on top as Paul Parry's pace and movement caused problems for Campbell and Distin at the heart of the Pompey defence - good passes from Whittingham, Ledley and Rae to the front runner almost led to a goal, but there was a sea change in the game about midway through the first period when Enckelman got into a mess dealing with what should have been a straightforward free kick and City struggled to scrape the ball away.
Unfortunately, Enckelman, who had done a good job in most of his other appearances for the club seemed to lose it a bit when he played at Wembley as he followed up a below par showing against Barnsley with a shaky display here. Portsmouth, who had been in awful form since reaching the Final, had looked very nervous up until then, but Enckelman's error appeared to give them confidence and some lovely footwork by Kanu should have led to a goal as he beat Loovens and rounded Enckelman only to hit the post - the angle was tight, but, as he was only about five yards from goal, it was a bad miss.
Roger Johnson was a danger throughout from set pieces and he headed narrowly over before Portsmouth got the decisive goal on 37 minutes - Utaka was perhaps given too much room by Capaldi to deliver a dangerous looking low cross which Enckelman spilled and Kanu followed up to tap in from about three yards.
It was such a soft goal for City to concede and, inevitably, all eyes were on Enckelman - it had been a hard cross to deal with, but that is what keepers are paid to do and I am afraid City's keeper joined a pretty long list of keepers whose big day out would be remembered for an error that cost a goal.
In the minutes that remained before half time, Parry again got free, but his cross eluded McNaughton and then, for one magical moment, it appeared that City had equalised only for Loovens' fine finish to be rightly disallowed by referee Dowd for handball.
City now had forty five minutes to save the game, but, in truth, I watched the second half with a feeling that their best chance had gone. Without exactly looking in command, Portsmouth now appeared to be pretty comfortable as they had stopped City getting into dangerous areas of the pitch. Frankly another goal looked a long way away for both sides - Portsmouth had their moments when Loovens deflected Kanu's shot past the post and Enckelman saved at his near post from sub Nugent, but, at the other end, City were struggling. Parry had now faded from the game, but, in his defence, he was getting little or no help from his striking partner Hasselbaink who was having a wretched time as he spent more time on the floor appealing for free kicks than contributing to his team's cause.
Hasselbaink's miserable Final brought into focus a debate that had gone on amongst supporters as to whether 17 year old Aaron Ramsey should have started the game - it is not with the benefit of hindsight that I say he should have and I would have used him in a free role playing off Parry. However, Dave Jones had used the youngster who was now attracting of the Premiership big guns cautiously all season and he was hardly likely to change his thinking now - so it was that, Ramsey had to wait two thirds of the game to get his chance and, even then, it was at the expense of Whittingham, who was the sort of player who could produce that bit of magic which would make all the difference for City.
City roused themselves for one last effort and they did come pretty close when Loovens headed into the ground and over from a corner and Johnson's header was deflected into the side netting. Steve Thompson's arrival for Hasselbaink gave Portsmouth a different set of problems and they did have one or two alarms as Ramsey found some room in the box and Roger Johnson's shot was blocked by Glenn Johnson, but, the closing minutes flew by and at the final whistle City fans had to come to terms with the fact that they were would be just Cup Finalists in 2008 and not Cup winners.
I suppose it was very much down to the individual as to what they felt at the end of the game - my feeling throughout the day was one of pride and I thought nine members of the starting line up had done themselves proud on the day. It's hard to name individuals, but I thought Joe Ledley gave Glenn Johnson far more problems than most Premiership players had done during the season and our two centre backs had once again done very well as had a cramp stricken Kevin McNaughton. Unfortunately though, I thought two of our players at either end of the pitch were off their game and, in the end, it was the fact that Peter Enckelman's and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's performance fell short of those of their team mates that made the difference between two evenly matched teams.
There you are then, that's the end of my review of the season - it's gone on far longer than I meant it to and, I daresay, much longer than those of you who have made it to the end wished it would. However, I make no apologies for that because I believe that, for it to be a proper review of what I rate as the most memorable season on and off the pitch since I started following the club in 1963, it needed to be this long - I may not be Peter Ridsdale's greatest fan, but I would like to thank him, Dave Jones, the players and all of the other staff at Ninian Park for the part they played in an extraordinary campaign.
(Thanks Paul, much appreciated MM)