WITH a whoop and war dance downfield, Mark Bosnich ended the most dramatic match in the history of Villa Park. For months the Australian goalkeeper of Croatian parentage has been telling anyone who would listen that he would be going to Wembley in the Coca Cola League Cup final. There was a moment when only he believed it - a moment of theatre so compelling the heart pounds just to think of it.

Skipper Kevin Richardson had taken a flying kick at his penalty attempt, heaving the ball into the gleeful Tranmere blue horde in the North Stand to leave John King's gallant side at 4-4.

One successful shot: game, set and match. Twin Towers. Wembley, Fame.

O'Brien swung his right foot, Bosnich hurtled to his right, beat the ball away, jumped up and pointed at himself as if to declare "Me - I did that". Not bad for a player who, frankly, would not have been on the field had the otherwise-excellent referee acted as advised by the FA.

In pulling John Aldridge to the ground in the 30th minute Bosnich was guilty of impetuosity to a degree that in the great majority of cases would have led to dismissal, and yesterday the probability of Villa's exit from the competition.

Referee Allan Gunn took a lenient view, failed to do other than lecture Bosnich and although Aldridge scored with the penalty to put Rovers 4-3 ahead on aggregate, had cast a sone from this the ripples would become a tidal wave.

But in our time capsule, back to the shoot-out: you could practically hear Tony Daley's pulse as the winger, born within a Holte End roar of Villa Park, strode forward to achieve, or to embarrass himself.

He shot to Eric Nixon's right, no trouble, 5-4 to Villa.

This was a tie-break in a Wimbledon final; a dead heat in the Olympic 100 metres.

Right-back lan Nolan v Bosnich. Nolan took aim a mite too carefully with his right foot and Bosnich dived left and palmed away.

The 22-year-old goalkeeper was up and running before his colleagues had started to dance, or Tranmere feel that pit-of-stomach pain of rejection that is physical.

Bosnich was engulfed in fans, a human carpet of them, tension released. The penalty shoot-out pays scant regard to justice or to the superhuman toiling of men in quest of a grand laurels.

It is unfair to throw a team to the football equivalent of damnation without a fair chance of settling a semi-final.

As any player will agree, there are few feelings worse than defeat a single step from Wembley. There is one, though: a single kick. Tranmere suffered it yesterday.

If this had little to do with football for the aficionado. It was as monumentally exciting for them as for everyone else.

Even so, it says much for previous two hours of entertainment that the quick thrill was nothing to compare with the match itself, a transfixing occasion from the first minute when Neil Cox's nonchalance almost allowed Chris Malkin through.

Villa's defence was frighteningly bad to begin with, Paul McGrath out-of-touch and Cox uneasy as Rovers set about creating and missing the chances that ultimately proved as critical to them as Bosnich's three penalty saves.

It was Bosnich who, reacting with a fling of his arms, turned away Pat Nevin's short-range effort after Cox and Shaun Teale had blocked Aldridge.

A minute later Mark Hughes volleyed just wide of the Villa goal and before the home crowd had quite recovered from that, Malkin wastefully drove over from Nolan's cross.

Villa were over-commited, almost frantic, in their pursuit of the early goal.

However, in the 20th minute their wish was fulfilled and four minutes later their ambition apparently completed.

Andy Townsend and Kevin Richardson were establishing the midfield command that was to lead to the manufacture of no fewer than 26 goal attempts in ordinary time, and it was Townsend whose persistence was first rewarded.

Robbing Nolan, he exchanged passes with Daley before crossing to Saunders who, squeezing past two defenders, sidefooted inside the near post for a classic sniffer's goal.

Tranmere were increasingly troubled by angled crosses and their defence vanished like morning mist when Ray Houghton rolled a free-kick to Richardson who, from 35 yards away, found Teale plunging in front of Hughes to power a header into the far corner of Nixon's goal. Teale was smiling as he landed.

For the first time in two legs Villa were in the lead, albeit only by the away goal margin. Six minutes later Wembley was in danger of becoming a mirage again, Aldridge 's successful penalty meaning Villa required two goals or a shoot-out to reach their sixth League Cup final.

Daley continually caused Tranmere anxiety with the accuracy of his crosses and Villa ground the football out of their opponents.

Once Aldridge grazed a post with a hook shot but set against that were a succession of chances, mainly in the air, to Atkinson, Saunders, McGrath, Teale and even Daley.

Saunders flipped a shot over, Townsend scuffed a chance wide but eight corners proved fruitless.

Then, just as it seemed resilience would overcome enterprise, a free-kick was moved to Daley whose stabbed pass was met with unanswerable force by Atkinson's head two minutes from time.

Dalian's goal at Prenton Park had been a bridgehead. This one, almost as late, had blown open the castle.

Villa relaxed momentarily, nearly fatefully, for O'Brien's free-kick sent Bosnich the wrong way before striking the inside of the post with the goalkeeper clinging to it as if to a life raft.

With Graham Fenton replacing Cox after 78 minutes and Ugo Ehiogu for the injured Houghton at full-time, Townsend opted to stay on with knee ligament injuries in extra time.

In the end, no man better deserves a Wembley place than captain Kevin Richardson who had barely misdirected a ball all afternoon but took a tall-ender's waft at his spot-kick.

If the Villa players owe Bossie a drink, the skipper owes him two.