Liverpool win the Carling Cup - Not bad for starters.

Well, Sunday was lots of fun.. bit of hard work at times, but we managed to find a pub that would let Liverpool fans in eventually and that wasn't 15 deep at the bar. And after all that hard work there was a match to go to.

There is always an element to games when we are playing lower league teams, almost like a no win situation. If you brush them aside then it was easy and you were supposed to do that anyway. If you don't then it's "what the hell are you playing at, that was supposed to be easy."

But that is something of a nonsense.. especially when you are playing at Wembley. If ever a team needs motivation than playing in a Cup Final should provide plenty of it, and if it doesn't, then you've made something of an odd career choice.

Sunday was a weird one for me. I expected us to win, I suppose everyone did really. Even Cardiff fans would have gone there in hope rather than expectation - a bit presumptuous, but I bet I'm not far off the mark. So when they scored pretty early on, it puts a different spin on things straight away.

From just expecting to win, suddenly it's - "What if we don't win this." This is Wimbledon all over again. Actually it's Sheffield Wednesday all over again, as they were the last second divison (in old money) side to win the League Cup. But that was against Man Utd and therefore hilarious.

It was strange though. because I always felt pretty confident we'd turn it round. We were having more of the ball as you might expect, so when Skrtel scored it was a relief and I fully expected us to kick on. But again we didn't really take the game by the scruff of the neck and, well make life easy for ourselves. Or rather Cardiff didn't make it easy for us and all credit to them for that. Unlike Brighton last week who not so much waved the white flag in surrender, rather fell on their own swords - three times.

But we got there in the end with the customary win on penalties. I make it 2003 the last time we won a trophy that didn't go down to pens, with AC Milan and West Ham since then. But given Liverpool's almost Germanic efficiency when it comes down the crunch it almost takes the fun out of it.

I think I'm right in saying that Liverpool have only ever lost on penalties twice (to Wimbledon years ago and Northampton under Woy) out of something like 14 occasions. Pretty efficient.

So where does this all leave us. Well we have a trophy in the bag and we've qualified for Europe, so already we've done better than last season.

We're one more game away from a return to Wembley - if we beat Stoke and get to the FA Cup semi - shouldn't be at Wembley but how can you argue about the history of the FA Cup in the face of the FA balance sheets.. only 1 winner there. By the way if that does happen we're nailed on to get Everton - Spurs v Chelsea in the other one.

The Arsenal result on Sunday was more than a little surprising and given our current position not ideal. With Spurs 2-0 up it seemed to be going well - even if there was a bit of simian cheating going on. But the recovery from Arsenal came just at the wrong time for us.

With their trip to Anfield on Saturday a Spurs win would have left Arsenal on the floor mentally (especially after recent form) and a Liverpool win would have taken us to within a point with a game in hand. The Spurs collapse gives them a shot in the arm, with even the likes of Rosicky scoring goals.

Now Saturday is a must win game, just to keep touch with 4th spot. To be fair it probably was a must win game before Sundays result, but now it definitely is.

As good as was to see Liverpool players dancing about at Wembley again - even though from the back row they looked pretty tiny -  if we are going to continue the progression we've made 4th spot is vital. Now it's right to say that you don't get any medals for finishing fourth, and given the option the FA Cup would be preferable to 4th - but without the income the Champions League generates, both financially and the viability for transfer targets, then we are going to find it difficult to continue to progress at the rate that we clearly have been doing.

I realise I have completely contradicted myself there. Finishing  fourth is vital, but winning trophies is the point to the whole thing. More vital for next season, than this I suppose. If we want to be at the pointy end of things this time next year it will be easier if we are welcoming AC Milan to Anfield than Metalist Kharkiv - no disrespect, to Metalist Kharkiv although I suspect not too many of their fans will be reading this.