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In the end the fairytale ended in tears to match the midlands downpour.

But each and every Wycombe player deserved to walk out of Villa Park with their heads held high after a frenetic finale in an FA Cup semi-final in which they took Liverpool to the very edge of their sanity.

Emile Heskey and Robbie Fowler, conservatively £30million of striking talent, scored the Liverpool goals in four late second-half minutes with Keith Ryan adding the deserved Wycombe consolation.

Wycombe's flirtation with football history was over. No, they will not be at the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff next month to face Arsenal after losing 2-1 to Liverpool in a match of pulsating emotion.

But football fans throughout the land must never forget Lawrie Sanchez's side. Sanchez, the man who scored the winner for Wimbledon against the Reds in the 1988 FA Cup final, had predicted he would come back to haunt Liverpool.

How brave, how commendable, how impossibly close they came to the biggest football shock the nation that gave the world the game had ever seen.

They scrapped, they harried, they battled and in what ironically was the most unpretty of matches they reminded us of the beauty of the 'beautiful game'.

The beauty that says money isn't everything, that says a Second Division side amassed for just £1million can match £100million of Premiership talent if they show heart and soul and lashings of never-say-die spirit.

If only Wycombe could bottle such quality and sell it they'd have a commodity to rival that of Bill Gates.

At the end the Wanderers heroes ran to their 20,000 supporters, many painted in the blue of Wycombe, who roared their acclaim for their side's quite phenomenal achievement in reaching this semi-final.

Sanchez trudged in his soaked green overcoat and walked the length of the pitch to embrace Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier.

The exit could not have been more dignified, just as Wycombe's challenge could hardly have been more magnificent. After all, this Wycombe side included former carpet-layers, debt collectors, a goalkeeper in Martin Taylor whose career, after breaking a leg, was saved only by a hypnotist, and a Liverpool fan in Paul McCarthy who shouted himself hoarse in front of the television on Thursday night as his idols drew with Barcelona.

It included Steve Brown, the man who was sent off in the last round for taking his shirt off in euphoric celebration, and whose two-year-old sick son Maxwell was here at Villa Park to help his dad make history.

Indeed Brown carried out young Maxwell at the start and young Jack Sanchez, son Lawrie, also ran out as a mascot.

Such is the stuff of dreams. There was humour too. A huge banner at Aston Villa's Holte End proclaimed 'Dave Carroll is not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy' - a Pythonesque reference to the charismatic Wycombe substitute nicknamed 'Jesus' for the spreadeagled manner in which he conducts his stretching routines.

Sure, it would have been romantic to see such colourful Wycombe personalities take their place at the Millennium Stadium next month.

It would have placed Sunday, April 8, 2001 forever in football folklore. But let's be honest, it would also have been a devastating blow for this grand old competition.

Wycombe have graced this oldest and most prestigious domestic cup competition. More than that, they have ignited it from the apparent apathy which had manifested itself in falling television ratings and attendances.

They had beaten Wimbledon and Leicester deservedly, but no-one gave them a realistic chance against Liverpool. After all, hadn't Sanchez summed up his side's task succinctly when he said: "Liverpool are one of the best teams in the world, we are the best team in Buckinghamshire."

Well, there were times this afternoon when Wycombe looked the best side at Villa Park such was the abject quality of Liverpool's passing for vast periods of this game.

And as Liverpool struggled in frustration all the while Sanchez tried to orchestrate his men from his touchline box.

In black funereal suit he looked for all the world like Bryan Ferry about to do a turn for old band Roxy Music. He shouted, he cajoled, constantly he called his men to the touchline for a committee meeting, incurring the wrath of fourth official Jeff Winter on more than one occasion.

And for so long it worked. For so long it seemed that Wycombe might scuffle and scrap their way to history in this 50th FA Cup semi-final staged at Villa Park.

"Taylor for England", the Wycombe faithful chanted as the Second Division goalkeeper threw himself to save from point-blank range from Michael Owen.

They were chanting something altogether more impolite at Owen when he was surrounded by Wycombe players after what looked suspiciously like a dive in the penalty area. And when Taylor saved again with a flying leap to deny Heskey we wondered whether this was indeed to be the day of the minnow.

It wasn't to be. A minute later Steven Gerrard threw over one of those whiplash deliveries and Heskey planted the header firmly past Taylor. Then Robbie Fowler followed with an exquisite free-kick.

It was all over, except that this Wycombe side don't know how to lie down - Keith Ryan supplying the exquisite lob which gave us seven or eight minutes of breathless action before Liverpool finally took their place in the cup final.

Few Liverpool fans will remember a poor performance by Houllier's men. But none of us should forget Wycombe in a hurry - the team that put romance back into the FA Cup.