It might be beyond even Big Sam to get a club with limited resources to exceed expectations for a second time

Twenty-two minutes into a tie scheduled to be played out over two legs and three hours, the thousands who had crammed into Ewood Park’s away stand, the Darwen End, were singing the old song about going to Wembley. And it was a chant the other three sides of the stadium, whose empty seats were mocked by those who had travelled from the Midlands, might have anticipated.

There was not much optimism in this wintry corner of the Pennines. Since Sheffield Wednesday were overcome by Graeme Souness’s men in 2002, Blackburn have lost six semi-finals and a survey of readers in the town’s evening paper, The Lancashire Evening Telegraph, was larded with foreboding.

One commented that because Sam Allardyce’s team would be unable to match Aston Villa’s speed and skill in the second leg, Blackburn would need a minimum 2-0 victory here. There was no need to wait for Villa Park; they were undone by James Milner’s fabulous display of skill and speed on their own pitch before launching a belated series of counter-attacks.

Allardyce appeared on Ewood’s big screens just before kick-off, giving a preview of a night on which Blackburn’s season could comfortably have been said to rest, looking rather more downbeat than usual. It is almost 13 months since his arrival at Blackburn and if he has achieved what was asked of him by repairing the shambles of Paul Ince’s brief rule, he has found it harder to push on.

Ten years ago he made his name as a late-blooming managerial force in a season in which he took Bolton to the semi-finals of both domestic cups. Both were lost but for the club and its manager, they were stepping stones to greater things. In a sense, Allardyce is back at the Reebok; attempting to get a poorly-supported club with limited resources to punch above its weight. The recruitment of Michel Salgado echoes that of another veteran of the Bernebéu, Ivan Campo at Bolton, but his impact, by comparison, has been limited. Only when Nikola Kalinic twice struck the frame of the goal, did Blackburn look as if they might land a killer blow. Second-half Blackburn were vastly better than first-half Blackburn but, as the jeers of derision that greeted the interval suggested, they could scarcely have been worse.

There was none of the drive and sense of heroic purpose that marked their quarter-final victory over Chelsea. The same big screen on which Allardyce gave his interview played footage of that victory over a soundtrack of David Bowie’s Heroes.

Football clubs use this rather inappropriate song a lot, just as in the 1980s a lot of weddings played Police’s Every Breath You Take for the bride and groom’s first dance. “Heroes” with its chorus of “just for one day” is about the romantic hopelessness and heroic impossibility of success, hence the quote marks around the title. For Blackburn that day was the one they overcame Chelsea and it looks unlikely to be repeated, not this season anyway.

Sam AllardyceBlackburn RoversAston VillaTim Richguardian.co.uk

• Aston Villa have similar feelings, Allardyce says
• ‘Football is about glory and cup finals’

Sam Allardyce feels the Carling Cup now represents the only chance of a trophy for clubs of Blackburn Rovers’ stature, though he could not help noticing Aston Villa also sent out a weakened side in Saturday’s FA Cup dress rehearsal for tonight’s semi-final first leg at Ewood Park.

“It was obvious on Saturday that both teams felt the Carling Cup semi-final was the real priority,” Allardyce said of the 3-1 defeat in the senior competition. “You don’t get many chances to get among the medals any more.”

One could understand Blackburn feeling that way, with due respect to their record in knockout contests, though for Martin O’Neill to rest players in the way he did suggests Allardyce is on to something when he says the secondary competition is coming back into favour.

“You only have to look at the clubs who are still left in it to realise that,” he said. “The competition is right up there again, no matter what anyone says, because it is an opportunity to win something and that’s what football is all about. I think there’s a danger, now that the same teams tend to win the big trophies year after year, of the fun going out of football.

“It is easy to forget what got you excited about the game in the first place. I don’t think the big boys enjoy a cup run as much as we do, because most of their players have probably played in five or six finals already. We haven’t, and we’re so close now we can almost taste it.”

Much as it grieves some Blackburn supporters to be reminded of the club’s smallness and to be praised for punching above their weight when the club have reached their sixth semi-final in eight years, it is an undeniable fact that with the Jack Walker era now a fading memory, only good management is keeping Rovers in the top flight.

Allardyce has proved himself extremely adept at extracting the most from modest resources, though even he admits life is not getting any easier. “A club like ours has to regard cup competitions as our only chance of glory, because what we do for the rest of the season is worry about our finances and try to do everything in our power to stay in the Premier League. That’s the name of the game for a club of our size now that Jack Walker’s money isn’t there to make us more competitive.

“As other clubs have moved forwards financially we have stood still, and handling the pressure that brings is not an easy task. You can get brainwashed by that sort of thinking, though. Football is not about finance, it’s about glory, and cup finals. The games you used to watch on the telly are what you do it for.

“Getting into Europe is also a real achievement for smaller clubs such as Blackburn and Bolton, and I’ve had a taste of that, but when you have qualified for Europe you don’t wake up the next day feeling thrilled about it. You don’t get a medal for playing in Europe, there’s no walking out at Wembley on the big day. This semi-final is a very big deal for us, and Martin will feel the same way, there’s no doubt about that.”

Blackburn have already beaten Villa at home in the league this season, though Allardyce is full of praise for the way O’Neill has steered his side into the top six.

“Villa have been magnificent since the start of the season, and when I watched them against Liverpool last month they were very unlucky to lose,” he said. “They deserved something from that game and I’m sure they will be coming here with the same sort of spirit and self-belief. That’s why I need my players to be as fresh as they can be. The FA Cup might be older than the Carling Cup, but for me the greater competition will always be the one where you have reached the semi-final.”

Carling CupBlackburn RoversAston VillaMartin O’NeillSam AllardycePaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk