text: Aston Villa match-winner Fabian Delph was left pinching himself after booking his side's place in the FA Cup final at the expense of Liverpool. Villa skipper Delph set up Christian Benteke's equaliser after Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring for the Reds and then rounded off a superb afternoon by sweeping home nine minutes into the second half to secure a 2-1 victory. Delph's strike means that Tim Sherwood's charges will return to Wembley to face holders Arsenal in next month's showpiece and the former Leeds midfielder says it will be a dream come true. Fabian Delph fires past Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet to book Aston Villa's place in the FA Cup final . Delph celebrates with team-mate Ashley Westwood after his 54th minute strike . Delph (left), Gabriel Agbonlahor (centre) and Grealish savour the winning feeling in the Villa dressing room . 'I can't wait for the final. To walk out as captain is going to be the highlight of my career. So happy days, I'm happy for the boys,' he told BT Sport 1. The 25-year-old England international reserved special praise for Sherwood for the job he has done since taking over in February when the club looked to be in deep trouble in the drop zone. Big wins over West Brom, Sunderland and Tottenham in the league, as well as the cup run, since then have lifted the mood around Villa Park and Delph feels Sherwood deserves a lot of credit for the remarkable turnaround. Christian Benteke, who struck the equaliser for Villa in the 36th minute, salutes the Villa fans after the game . 'The gaffer (Sherwood) is brilliant. He's positive with everybody. He doesn't panic. He's got a game plan and we stuck to it and there were a lot of young lads in the team,' he said. 'Young Jack (Grealish) has come in today and done fantastic and we're just happy. We're thrilled for the fans.' Delph now feels they can use their cup run as a springboard to secure Barclays Premier League survival and is not worried the final will become a distraction. Young Villa midfielder Grealish showed maturity beyond his years during the contest at Wembley . 'We're confident we'll come through it. We'll put that aside for today and honestly the next game we've got to think about is one in the Premier League,' he added. Jack Grealish, who only made his first Premier League start 12 days ago, impressed throughout the contest. The young Villa midfielder tweeted after the match: 'Best feeling off my life!! So happy for all the fans!! What a game, can't even express how much this means to me.' Sherwood was understandably in bullish mood after the landmark victory in only his 10th match as Villa boss and when asked how much he is enjoying life in the Midlands he replied: "Well it's going all right at the moment. The victorious Villa side celebrate their FA Cup semi-final triumph at the final whistle . "We're delighted with that obviously. We were the underdogs today but we believed in there that we could win it and I think we outplayed Liverpool to be honest. "We kept the ball off them, created lots of chances and they resorted to lumping the ball into our area in the last 10 minutes so you know you are doing something right when they're doing that." The former Tottenham boss, who played a key role in the development of Harry Kane, also reserved special praise for 19-year-old winger Jack Grealish. He was a constant threat down the left for Villa and was involved in the build-up play that led to Delph's winning goal. "He could be right up there amongst the best of them. The ball is his friend. He likes to receive it he doesn't look at it, he knows where it is, he shifts it, he's got a turn of foot, takes a lot of knocks, but he can take it. He's a big lad," Sherwood said. "He's Aston Villa through and through. He lives a couple of miles from the ground, he just wants to play for the club and I want to give him the platform to do that because he's earned the right."
target: Aston Villa beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to book their FA Cup final place .
  Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring for Liverpool in the 30th minute .
  Fabian Delph set up Christian Benteke for Villa's equaliser .
  Delph then swept home the winner nine minutes into the second-half .
  Tim Sherwood's side will return to Wembley to face Arsenal in the final .