At the reunion of Chelsea servants past and present, the oldest player on the pitch took his medicine stoically.
In his 34 previous appearances at Wembley for club or country, the last of them back in March 2014, Ashley Cole had won 25 and lost only three games.
There was to be no fairytale encore, no absconding into the sunset with £180 million of swag or one last gold star on his report card.
But as Derby County’s latest assault on English upper slopes fell agonisingly short, Cole never let his standards slip.
The old boy may be 38, the sort of age where previous generations of professional footballers would have taken to running a pub or flogging insurance, but he still knows his way round a left-back’s patrol.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
All over Wembley, there were reminders for Cole of the glory days at Stamford Bridge – Frank Lampard in one dugout, John Terry in the other – not to mention the regiment of on-loan Chelsea players on either side.
But none of them outshone a veteran with 805 games on the clock, including his 107 England caps.
Cole saw off Villa winger Albert Adomah, neither Villa goal could be laid at his doorstep, and now we must wonder if this was an ageing gunslinger’s last stand.
Derby boss Lampard said: “It’s up to Ash whether he wants to carry on playing. It’s his choice.
“But I have to say that for him to train for only four days, and play the way he did, was really special. Considering he is 38, his performance was immense.”
As for the Rams, another play-off defeat – not as gut-wrenching as QPR’s heist five years ago, but still a huge setback – leaves more questions than answers.
(Image: Action Images via Reuters)
Lampard’s future, with a potential return to Chelsea tugging at his heart-strings, is as clear as a pea souper.
He was careful to reveal he had neither sought, nor entertained, approaches from any other club – but he plans talks with owner Mel Morris to discuss the way ahead in the second half of his two-year contract.
The platoon of loan kids – Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount, Harry Wilson – who gave the Rams such a vibrant, youthful outlook this season now return to their parent clubs and may return to Pride Park only in the visitors’ dressing room.
And wagons are circling among disaffected rivals, notably Middlesbrough, who claim Derby’s promotion bid drove a coach and horses through financial rules.
On the final whistle, Lampard made a point of applauding the huddled masses who had swarmed south from Brian Clough Way.
But for Cole, valiant in defeat and carried out on his shield, the final curtain may have fallen.
