Aston Villa's formative years of Premier League life were a carbon copy of what came before.
By the summer of 1995 they'd already pushed inaugural champions Manchester United before falling away and settling for a distant second place, and narrowly avoided relegation.
The team's new manager, Brian Little, had grand plans after replacing Ron Atkinson in the Villa Park dugout. To that end, he needed to adequately replace Dean Saunders and Dalian Atkinson, Villa's lethal strike pairing under Big Ron.
The first component, Dwight Yorke, had already been at the club for years. Graham Taylor had signed him in 1989 and he'd been an effective understudy to Villa's "Deadly Duo" in the first half of the 1990s.
But he needed a partner. Little was on the hunt for a left-footer to add balance to the Villa attack.
What's the big deal?
Savo Milosevic, Little's 21-year-old acquisition from Partizan Belgrade, had won two Yugoslavian titles since turning professional with Partizan in 1992. His goals contributed significantly to his team's success.
He became Villa's record signing - £3.5m doesn't sound much, these days, but in 1995 it was a big ol' chunk of change - on the basis of video scouting alone.
The career that followed proved the validity of that particular virtual scouting mission. Milosevic went on to be a prolific forward, always wonderfully untypical, and his intelligence and tenacity later earned him roles as a technical director, a coach and a leading light in the Serbian Football Association.
But he struggled at Villa. While Mark Draper and Gareth Southgate, signed that same summer, settled in with relative ease, Milosevic achieved a curious contradiction.
Stylistically, he was loose and languid, at once elegant and unconvincing. The manner of his play oozed confidence and swagger. The quality of it betrayed the fact that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The expectations that came with being the club's record signing, and a striker to boot, was bound to put pressure on a player whose age is so often forgotten in retrospective commentary.
The 25-goal target he set himself when he first spoke to journalist Neil Moxley did him no favours; Little was furious with Moxley for his part in adding to the pressure.
But football was the least of his worries. Young men, far from a home at war, are always vulnerable to guilt, distraction and worse.
"You think where he came from and what was going on where he was at that time," Little said to The Villa View in 2019. "There were massive problems in Yugoslavia, or whatever it was at that time. Some of his family were fighting."
Villa, admitted Little, were poorly prepared to deal with Milosevic's circumstances, compounded by his inability to speak English.
Nevertheless, Milosevic worked hard and made a positive impression on his manager that stands to this day. He won the fans over, too, albeit with the ballast of many critics and more than a little side.
He dribbled aimlessly but with an enormous amount of skill, and his tendency to score in twos and three understandably made him popular.
During his time in England he was a player for whom one goal tended to lead to another, once he finally got off the mark.
But he was profligate, and his influence too often peripheral. So, when he took a Wembley final by the scruff of its neck with a bona fide screamer, the gasp was as audible as the cheer.
Did this goal actually mean anything?
Villa's love affair with the Football League Cup is the stuff of legend around B6. They were its first ever winners, overturning a 2-0 first leg deficit to beat Rotherham United in the final in 1961.
They twice lost finals and then won the Cup again in 1975, edging out John Bond's Norwich City. Two years later they needed a second replay and extra time to defeat Everton and secure their third League Cup triumph.
And, in terms of Villa's participation in Wembley finals, that was that until 1994. Having last won the FA Cup in 1957 and the League Cup in 1977, Villa's Coca-Cola Cup win against Manchester United in 1994 meant the world.
Repeating the feat in 1996 was the icing on the cake.
Peterborough United were beaten 6-0 in the Second Round First Leg, before clean sheets saw Little's team past Stockport County, Queens Park Rangers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Yorke's two goals in a scoring draw at Arsenal took Villa through a dramatic two-legged semi-final and set up a final, in March 1996, against Leeds United.
The Coca-Cola Cup mattered. Wembley was packed for the final, for one thing. For another, Villa's Premier League performances immediately before the final stank of Wembley nerves.
A limp loss at Hillsborough was followed by a midweek goalless draw against Middlesbrough amid the quietest, most disengaged Villa Park atmosphere this writer can remember.
That bump in the road did nothing to help Villa's quest for European football. It was a price worth paying.
Get on with it...
Villa's supporters congregated at Wembley with some relieved, others disappointed, that Leeds had defeated rivals Birmingham City in their semi-final.
Leeds ended the season in mid-table, a long way behind Villa's eventual position in fourth, but the two had been evenly matched in the sum of their prior meetings. Leeds won 2-0 at Elland Road, Villa 3-0 at Villa Park.
Leeds' form going into the final had been far worse than Villa's but both sets of fans knew then, and know now, to never take any result for granted.
The atmosphere was tense but electrifying, both before the match and in its early phase.
Then, with 20 minutes on the clock, Milosevic changed the whole dynamic of the final. Villa had started well; once they got in front, Leeds were barely able to lay a glove on them.
The opening goal was a thunderbolt and it came from a Leeds free kick.
The ball was clipped out to Lucas Radebe on the right, just inside Villa's half, and from the moment he turned back inside under pressure from Yorke, his team were in trouble.
John Pemberton passed to the feet of Gary Speed but Villa's Gary Charles was there, snapping away, and got a foot in to pop the ball towards the centre circle.
There, Villa captain Andy Townsend beat Gary McAllister to the ball and was fouled by the future Villa caretaker manager as the ball squirmed away to Milosevic.
Referee Robbie Hart waved the advantage and the striker set off towards the Leeds goal.
With the play in transition, he had the freedom of the Leeds half. The crucial mistake was Pemberton's decision to invite Milosevic to gobble up yard after yard rather than engaging him.
As the Villa man reached the 25-yard mark, his team were three-on-three with Leeds in retreat. Yorke had kept Radebe occupied on the right. Ian Taylor, flanking Milosevic on the left, made a smart run across the ball and past Pemberton.
Milosevic did the rest. He slowed, allowed the ball to run left and took a sidestep to go with it, not so much a drop of the shoulder as an almost lazy opening up of a striking angle, completely unopposed.
Then, with a long left peg, he blasted the ball past the helpless dive of goalkeeper John Lukic and into the top corner, Lukic's right, of the Leeds goal.
It swerved slightly in the air. It dipped. It ripped. And it put first a delighted grimace then a fully-fledged smile onto the face of the Villa icon who'd signed him.
Villa made full use of their lead, controlling the game and keeping Leeds at arm's length from that point on. They scored twice more at important junctures.
First, Taylor - a Villa supporter - made it 2-0 ten minutes into the second half. Then, with two minutes remaining, Yorke sealed it. His goal was cathartic. Two years earlier he'd been left heartbroken when he wasn't selected to play in the final.
So, this is a goal people talk about?
The Football League Cup is in decline and has been since not long after Villa's most recent win in 1996.
Milosevic's goal looms large in the club's modern history, remembered with huge excitement and fondness by those supporters old enough to remember it.
The longer Villa go without silverware, the more the 1996 final grows in historical stature, and Milosevic's rocket with it.
But it was still only the League Cup. Whole generations have been born and passed into adulthood with this competition at a low ebb.
It will die sooner rather than later. One day, Milosevic's Wembley wonder will have the same resonance as some long forgotten Full Members' Cup goal.
So the person most likely to discuss the goal today is the man himself; its impact beyond his immediate reach and relevance has waned.
Before Villa's EFL Cup (Carabao Cup) final in 2020, Milosevic was interviewed by Villa's media team.
"It was definitely one of the most beautiful goals I've scored in my career," he told them. "I remember I was lucky too get the ball in midfield and there was nobody in front of me, which was unusual.
"I was basically without an opponent until I was within 20 to 25 yards of the goal. I took the ball, ran fast and I had an open shot at the goal. It wasn't too difficult.
"It was beautiful but basically, I didn't have much resistance."
The website of one-time Villa historian John Lerwill carries a match report which points out that, "Little had had an inkling that Savo Milosevic, hitherto erratic, would score a really important goal for Villa this season. So it proved."
James Milner played and scored for Villa in the League Cup final in 2010. In 1996, he was at Wembley supporting Leeds. He described Milosevic's effort as "a good goal" - classic Jimmy.
The local newspaper likes to look back on these big moments, too. The Birmingham Mail's former Villa man, Mat Kendrick, was still ebullient 21 years later.
"He connected perfectly with a shot which seared past John Lukic and almost broke the goal net, never mind the deadlock," he wrote in 2017. "It was a stunning strike and, from that moment, Leeds looked a beaten side."
What was going on with Leeds though?
Leeds looked beaten, alright, and their supporters were unhappy with manager Howard Wilkinson.
Although The Mirror's match report suggested that Leeds had simply found Villa too hot to handle, the supporters felt Wilkinson had shot himself in the foot.
They chanted their various criticisms from the Wembley stands as they watched a team that had bizarrely been set up to defend succumb to a 3-0 loss.
Swedish international Tomas Brolin remained on the bench until ten minutes after Villa's goal. Fellow striker Brian Deane was brought on as a half time substitute for Mark Ford.
Tony Yeboah - the bookies' joint favourite for first goalscorer with Villa's Yorke - played the first half up front on his own.
Leeds' most effective player was 18-year-old Andy Gray, the nephew of 1970s Leeds favourite Eddie Gray. It was his fourth start for the first team.
Wilkinson's approach to the final was questioned for good reason. It smacked of fear and negativity, neither of which could be properly explained away by some unassailable nature in the opposition. Villa were beatable, albeit perhaps not on this particular day.
The players looked lost and their manager had no response. Wilkinson somehow survived the season but was sacked after a sketchy start to the next.
What happened next?
Wilkinson's Leeds team went from bad to worse after the Coca-Cola Cup final. They lost seven of their remaining Premier League matches, scoring just five times. There was better, and worse, to follow.
Villa won a couple but were winless in their last four as the season wound down with a whimper with UEFA Cup qualification already assured.
A week after Wembley they were at Old Trafford in the FA Cup semi-final, suffering their traditional 3-0 defeat at the hands of eventual winners Liverpool.
Little's fortunes declined. Milosevic's nosedived. An spitting incident at Ewood Park in January 1998 spelled the end for the young striker, and a few goals later he was gone.
Fanzine editor Dave Woodhall was among his fiercest critics after that incident. "Quite simply, he should never play for Aston Villa again," he posited.
He did, but not for long.
Milosevic's future was in Spain, where his career ignited. His desired move to Atletico Madrid was canned by way of punishment and he was sold instead to Real Zaragoza.
His record there was impressive. After 38 goals in two seasons he was on the way to Parma for a rather larger transfer fee than the one Villa chairman Doug Ellis had sanctioned in 1995.
After winning the Golden Boot at UEFA EURO 2000 he found himself back in Spain in 2002. Parma loaned him back to Zaragoza, Espanyol and Celta Vigo before he signed for Osasuna in 2004.
He scored for them all. In a total of 241 La Liga appearances he racked up 91 goals.
After retiring as a Rubin Kazan player in 2008, Milosevic, all grown up, embarked upon a career with the Serbian Football Association.
The international centurion became the Technical Director for their Youth and Under-21 sides, overseeing Serbia's Under-19 win in the 2013 European Championships.
He's also been the Vice-President of the Serbian FA, and has on more than one occasion been called upon to limit the damage done by racist supporters during England visits to the region.
In March 2019, Milosevic became a manager for the first time, starting out where his playing career began. Partizan Belgrade won the Serbian Cup two months later and finished third in the league.
In September 2019 they traveled to Ivanjica to face the local SuperLiga team, Javor Ivanjica. With four minutes remaining, the home team brought on a 22-year-old striker.
When Savo Milosevic was a 22-year-old playing in the Coca-Cola Cup final in 1996, his partner, Vesna, was pregnant.
Nikola Milosevic was born in Birmingham that December.
***
Words by Chris Nee. Art by Dotmund.
@SphinxFtbl