*Bolton miss out as Dublin delivers*

Aston Villa reached their first FA Cup final for 43 years here yesterday by a route which was both tortuous and, at least until extra-time, torturous.

After two scoreless hours they finally defeated Bolton Wanderers on penalties, Dion Dublin, recently recovered from a broken neck, scoring the decisive goal.

A largely forgettable but ultimately dramatic semi-final was in essence a story of one man’s misses leading to another’s smiles.

How Dean Holdsworth, having just seen a free-kick hit a post, managed to waft the ball over an empty net after David James had left his line in the second period of extra-time only the Bolton striker knew.

Certainly Dublin, having seen a header pushed against a post three minutes from the end, had no intention of wasting his redeeming moment in the shootout, after James had saved kicks from Allan Johnston and Michael Johansen to set Villa up for victory.

Aston Villa are not the first side to win an FA Cup semi-final on penalties, Liverpool did as much when they beat Portsmouth in 1992, but they are the first to do so without a replay. Then, Portsmouth had twice bettered Graeme Souness’s team and while Bolton did not quite achieve that Villa could not have complained had either of Holdsworth’s shots gone in.

Two minutes previously Villa, having lost Ian Taylor to an early injury, had been reduced to 10 men following David Elleray’s dismissal of Mark Delaney for two bookable fouls on Johnston in the space of four minutes.

Even John Gregory, the Villa manager and hardly an Elleray fan, could not have disputed the sending-off, though the way his team reorganised with 10 men was admirable.

More admirable, to be sure, than much of what went before when Aston Villa, rather than their First Division opponents, appeared frozen by the occasion. Even the better sides can sometimes struggle to get out of the lower gears, but Villa never really played the sort of football designed to bring out their strengths.

For too long the ability of Paul Merson to run at opponents or pick out colleagues with finely weighted passes was ignored as Villa pumped high balls towards their little strikers, Julian Joachim and Benito Carbone. And when Dublin eventually came off the bench 20 minutes from the end of normal time the more effective Carbone was the man Gregory took off, despite Joachim having squandered three chances before half-time.

Carbone retired with the dignity of a three-year-old being led past the sweet counter at Tesco, flinging down his headband and kicking the trainer’s bucket. At the end of the match he threw his dazzling footwear into a crowd of Villa supporters, and one had to wonder about the mentality of a striker who awards himself two golden boots to begin with.

At the outset, and for a long time thereafter, Bolton appeared to have the most likely match-winner in Eidur Gudjohnsen, the 21-year-old Icelandic striker who had scored in each of the previous four rounds. A combination of Gudjohnsen’s burly physique and his ability to turn tightly with the ball gave Ugo Ehiogu a particularly difficult afternoon and so nearly brought Bolton a goal after 19 minutes.

Johnston cleverly turned in from the left before laying the ball off to Gudjohnsen, who turned between Ehiogu and Gareth Southgate and saw his shot beat James only to be turned clear by a flick of Alan Wright’s head. Until extra time that was the closest Bolton came to scoring.

Despite their poverty Aston Villa could have had the match won by half-time. In the space of 12 minutes Joachim gathered an exquisite return pass from Carbone but shot too high and was then twice thwarted by Jussi Jaaskelainen’s alertness in the Bolton goal.

Extra-time proved relatively entertaining because both teams were tiring and making even more mistakes. Holdsworth’s howler recalled Ronnie Rosenthal, then with Liverpool, missing an empty net at Villa Park. Dublin’s header would have made a better climax than his penalty had it hit the net rather than the post.

Chelsea and Newcastle United return here next Sunday to decide who will be Aston Villa’s opponents in the final on May 20. At least these teams should fill Wembley - yesterday’s attendance was more than 12,000 below capacity, largely because Bolton’s fans had not taken up their quota of tickets.

That should be a more memorable game. Before yesterday’s kick-off the PA system implored spectators not to stand on seats in their excitement. Certainly the football did its best to make sure everyone took the spectacle sitting down.