Capital One Cup: The view from The Etihad

The first thing anyone old enough to recall 1976 remembers about that year is the heat of the summer. Unless you're a Manchester City fan that is, then the first thing you recollect is this magnificent overhead kick by Dennis Tueart to win the League Cup.

I was a football-crazy eight-year-old at the time and a regular visitor to London Road, home of Peterborough United, but like many a football-mad primary aged kid, whose home town club served up meagre fare week after week, I was after another bigger and better team to support. I'd followed Charlie George from Arsenal to Derby but that didn't quite feel right and I'd started to drift towards City anyway when that one moment of brilliance sealed my fate forever.

Glory-hunting at eight is a forgivable and acceptable behaviour in my eyes but it doesn't always pay off immediately - I can still vividly remember the pain of the 1981 FA Cup final replay defeat and no 13-year-old lad should have to go through that!

I don't go every week - I never have - but I've had times in my life, to quote our famous song, when I've been standing alone, without a dream in my heart or a love of my own, and I've thrown myself into my beloved City. 

I was a very regular visitor to Maine Road in the 1990s in particular and over all the barren years one thing remained constant - the acceptance that as much as I loved City, I knew we weren't likely to win anything. Anything except possibly, just maybe, the League Cup, but if the truth be told, until recently, when we lost to both Manchester United (2010) and Liverpool (2012) at the semi-final stage, we haven't really come close to winning it.

Liverpool knocked us out at the quarter-final stage in 1987 and we took Nottingham Forest back to Maine Road for a chance to get into the last-eight in 1993 but we messed that up and the first year I really started to think we could win it was 1995...

I'd been at Loftus Road to witness an absolute belter of a game and I can still see Peter Beagrie's athletic scissor-kick goal in the 4-3 win before we went on to reach the quarter-finals, and with Liverpool drawn against Arsenal, we were even as short as a single-figure price to win it! All we had to do was beat Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, avoid the big boys in the semis, and finally, Wembley was in sight. What a miserable night January 11 was though - Palace thumped us 4-0 and the journey home was long and depressing.

Nine months later I was at Anfield when we sat bottom of the league and were hammered 4-0 in round three. Heaven knows how my brain worked back then but I honestly, truly believed we might win that night. I think the word is deluded.

And then on to the next century and I was at Maine Road just before Christmas in 2000, to see Shaun Goater give us the lead in the quarter-finals against Ipswich. Again Wembley beckoned but it wasn't to be. Matt Holland's second half equaliser was always on its way and disappointingly, we lost in extra time. 

So here we are now, recent FA Cup winners and League Champions and to quote a famous Port Vale fan "rich beyond our wildest dreams". We've even got past the group stage of the Champions League at last but for me, Sunday will be so special. It completes the circle, ends the long and often arduous journey. We've made it at last. We're in the League Cup final again at last. And don't listen to those fools who says it's 'only the League Cup'. For the vast majority of fans it's the only chance of silverware. Swansea and Birmingham fans don't qualify their recent wins with any 'only the League Cup' talk.

Will we beat Sunderland? The odds suggest we will, but they're a bogey team - they've beaten us 1-0 at the Stadium of Light in each of the last three seasons and I trudged out of Wembley in torrential rain in May after Wigan beat us by that very scoreline in the FA Cup final. I'm a City fan, we don't do taking victory for granted and nor should we. 

The silver lining for me in May was the sight of jubilant Wigan fans enjoying something they never thought they'd see and if we do lose on Sunday, I'm a football fan first and foremost and I'll again appreciate the fact that it wasn't our day but that this time Wearside will be happy.  And if that's the case, bloody good luck to them, their journey has been no less arduous and they'll deserve it. 

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You've read Steve's thoughts - now check out the View from the Stadium of Light from B.B contributor and Sunderland fan Jaymes Monte.