VILLA PARK has been the scene of many FA Cup semi-final triumphs over the decades and an equal amount of heartache stories.

Yesterday Middlesbrough, without the excitement of a plethora of goals, suffered the latter as their glory-hunting campaign experienced dejection and despair.

Franck Queudrue sat motionless in the centre circle, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink applauded fans before trudging away from the pitch and Chris Riggott, the man guilty of a glorious last minute miss, was consoled by his team-mates.

Manager Steve McClaren, the favourite for the England job, also clapped the fans. He now only has one chance of winning a trophy if he is going to succeed Sven Goran Eriksson.

This was the venue where Ryan Giggs' FA Cup wonder goal, as he skipped round Arsenal player after Arsenal player, kept Manchester United on course for an historic treble in 1999.

Also the stadium where Alan Pardew, the West Ham boss, scored one of Crystal Palace's four goals in the scintillating 4-3 win over Liverpool in 1991.

Yesterday, with some of the stewards still on duty who were there for that special Sunday afternoon, did not witness the same sort of outstanding heroics.

But, with one bullet strike from Marlon Harewood with 12 minutes remaining, they did see Middlesbrough's hopes of FA Cup glory go up in smoke. West Ham are guaranteed European football next season, Boro, for now, are not.

This tale, like any other, had its heroes and villains. And, contrary to what the Middlesbrough team selected suggested, one of the surprising bright lights was Stewart Downing.

McClaren, with members of the Football Association sat high in the main stand monitoring what their potential solution to vacant England job did, had a touch of the Mourinho's and it could quite easily have backfired.

The Chelsea boss had to feel the wrath from many of the country's pundits, and many of the Blues fans, for the way he chose to take on Liverpool in the first of the two last four contests without playing with recognised wingers.

Middlesbrough do not have the luxury of being able to name the likes of Arjen Robben, Joe Cole and Damien Duff on the bench for a semi-final but they do have one of the best English left-wingers in their armoury.

So to see Downing afford a more central midfield role in a wing-back system must have encouraged the Hammers, whose own good form this season has been aided by the wide play of Yossi Benayoun and Matthew Etherington down either flank.

But, although Benayoun and Etherington did find more space than they would have expected, it was Downing's influence that caught the eye during the opening half and the finger of blame for this defeat cannot point at the manager.

With Easington teenager Adam Johnson emerging through the ranks to challenge for the left-wing role, there is a long-term answer to accommodating the pair of them and that is to draft Downing inside.

First impressions count for a lot in football and on this occasion the report card is good for the young man from Pallister Park. Ably assisted by another Academy product, Andrew Taylor, down the left side, Downing made numerous forays forward but he also contributed a great deal to play through the middle.

A light-hearted chat with West Ham's Nigel Reo-Coker, team-mates for the England Under-21s, when Mark Schwarzer received unsuccessful treatment could quite easily have centred around the fact that West Ham would pay more attention to Downing after the restart.

The World Cup hopeful, whose chances of going to Germany are unlikely to increase with a change of position, was only on the periphery of the squad when Middlesbrough reached this stage in McClaren's first season in charge.

And there have been major changes since that Old Trafford date when they lost to Arsenal. Only Gareth Southgate, Franck Queudrue and Schwarzer started both games.

In fairness to Middlesbrough, the huge alterations to the squad that have taken place under McClaren have been behind a charge to the two cup semi-finals.

Unfortunately the relative success on the field has not been reflected in the stands. A club, which has struggled to sell its tickets for home games all season, were shown to have been let down by a large chunk of their support again here.

Visible gaps of seats, which could not be seen within the West Ham sections, were beamed by satellite back to the North-East and across the globe, as the Londoners outnumbered those from Middlesbrough.

And, in the 58th game of a gruelling campaign, those that did turn out had to sit in silence for much of the second half as West Ham responded in exactly the sort of manner that was required to thwart Boro.

Nevertheless, even if this game didn't have the goals that would have made this an occasion to remember, there was one. Crucially, Harewood provided it.

Now all eyes from Boro turn towards Thursday, a similar outcome against Steaua Bucharest and a season that could have delivered two trophies will end with none.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.