Wembley would give a lot for weather like Saturday's on May 16th. On current showing it would not mind Coventry too for the Cup final. The Sky Blues are playing on cloud nine, Villa simply under a cloud - which is why Coventry, at the 27th attempt, won at Villa Park for the first time. It has taken 62 years. Just now they believe in themselves more than hoodoos.
Coventry's Cup record since they won it in 1987 has also been wretched. They are normally out before the crocuses, let alone daffodils. This will be their first quarter-final since, and they have reached it with first-time victories over Liverpool, Derby and Villa, the first and last of them away - none of this two bites at Stevenage.
The Eton Boating Song is their traditional signature tune and they all pulled together for Gordon Strachan, the touchline cox whose passion brought a referee's rebuke for overstepping his territory. By contrast Brian Little stood pensive and inflexible in his winter waterproofs - and Savo Milosevic was not in the vicinity.
The chairman Doug Ellis said yesterday his door is open to the discontented Yugoslav, who has not played for a month. Without Dwight Yorke, Little was virtually obliged to stick with Stan Collymore, not that he has shown sign of dropping him anyway.
What started as faith in his ability to get the best from a wayward talent is looking like self-defeating obstinacy. In 30 starts Collymore, all £7 million of Villa's record buy, has scored five goals, none significant. An advert for Villa's sponsors shows him standing over a PC with the legend "The quietest in the Premiership".
His unconcern at losing possession was almost defiant and ultimately fatal. After 70 minutes his loose first touch set Coventry off again on a move which ended with George Boateng - a snip at £250,000 - cutting in from the right past Alan Wright, Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu before drawing another elastic save from Mark Bosnich. The ball ran to Viorel Moldovan, Coventry's record buy at £31/4 million, who tapped in his first City goal.
Villa could have been four down by then, three to Trond Soltvedt. Bosnich denied him and then Julian Joachim cleared off the line. Soltvedt and Boateng were conspicuous in support of their front two and Strachan's son Gavin, making his first start in virtually a reserve midfield, contributed fully. Dion Dublin was naturally at the heart of it - at both ends - going into defence when Moldovan came on for Richard Shaw.
In World Cup terms the Romanian will have noted how Southgate was discomforted by Dublin in the air and Darren Huckerby's pace. Villa, newly aligned in 4 4 2, could have used a sweeper but Little is thinking rigidly under pressure. The team reflected their boss, as Coventry did theirs: the one predictable, the other perky.
