I stuck Grealish on bench at 16 to stop Fergie nicking him for £200K

scored a last-gasp winner from a defensive mix-up after Robin van Persie had cancelled out Nikola Zigic’s header.

Eck said: “When I go back to Birmingham somebody normally recognises me and they say: ‘You gave me the best day of my life.’

“To go and win it was beyond my dreams. We weren’t given a prayer but we played well.

“It has to be one of the proudest moments of my career. You couldn’t fault a single player. We prepared so well for that game.

“We split the players up into small groups leading up to the game to emphasis everyone’s jobs.

“You can’t always be a genius and invent something new but you can plagiarise.

“I had watched Barcelona against Rubin Kazan in Russia in a 1-1 draw when Obafemi played in the Champions League.

“I wanted to sort out the Arsenal full-backs and wingers which I felt would go a long way to stopping them.

“We were so disciplined in our play but when we got the ball we wanted to express ourselves. At Villa a few weeks before Zigic had missed a big chance with his head when he shrunk his neck a bit as the keeper came out.

“I showed him it on video before the game in my room at Wembley – this time, in the final, the big ‘un went to his tallest and beat the goalie.

“Arsenal equalised before the break and I had steam coming out of my ears. I was fuming but we needed to go in and tell them, ‘Start again and don’t switch off.’

“It took until the last minute to win it when Zigic again caused chaos but I didn’t feel Arsenal were the massive threat they should have been.”