Watch: Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood hails 'magnificent' fans after Wembley fightback
Victorious Villa boss Tim Sherwood credited the club's supporters for inspiring their stunning fightback to beat Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Goals from Christian Benteke and captain Fabian Delph saw the claret and blues come from behind to set up a May 30 final date with Arsenal.
Sherwood believes the travelling army of 32,000 fans were crucial in rallying his team, after Philippe Coutinho has given Liverpool a 30th minute lead.
"It was a great occasion for the football club," he said. "There's nothing won yet but not a lot of people gave us a chance coming here.
"But we believed it and when we stepped foot on the pitch we realised out fans believed it as well
"It means an awful lot to us to know that. They were magnificent especially when we went behind, they dragged us back in the game.
"We managed to get back into the game six minute later thanks to Christian with a fantastic goal and then we dominated the football and caused Liverpool a lot of problems."
Teenage star Jack Grealish had a hand in both Villa goals in what was a superb individual performance.
And Sherwood added: "The bigger the stage, the better he plays. He relishes it and that's the sign of a good talent.
"Jack's someone I looked at before I was at the club. I've seen him in training. You give him
instructions and he sticks to the plan.
"He's got a big future at the football club."
He went on: "We looked at Liverpool and realised it might cause them a few problems if we played two number 10s - Grealish and N'Zogbia and it turned out that way.
"They played in the pockets they were hard to pick up. They got themselves on the turn, put them on the back foot and our width came from our full backs
"We knew our midfield in there would have the energy in there to cope, which they did and we needed to get players in support of Christian.
"I thought the gameplan worked perfectly today."
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers meanwhile admitted his side - who were odds-on favourites at the bookmakers - were beaten by the better team.
"We're obviously bitterly disappointed but more with the performance," Rodgers said.
"You can always lose a game but you need to play well and give yourself an opportunity.
"We had some chances but I thought they were better than us today to be honest."
