Analysis: Slow starts return to haunt Aston Villa as promotion dream dies at Wembley

The first, which saw them win only one of their opening seven games, ultimately caused them to fall short in the race for automatic promotion.

Then, on Saturday, a strangely passive first-half performance denied them an alternative route back to the top flight, in what was arguably the club’s biggest game since lifting the European Cup in 1982.

Tom Cairney’s 23rd-minute goal was enough to win the Championship play-off final and send Fulham soaring back among British football’s elite.

Not even a rousing second-half display, or the mercurial brilliance of Jack Grealish, was enough to save Villa from defeat and a future of increasing uncertainty.

For Steve Bruce, this was a first taste of defeat in a play-off final after two previous successes. There is, undoubtedly, no better way to win promotion. Conversely, there is no worse way to miss out than in a one-game shoot-out where the difference between winning and losing is around £170million.

The games are rarely dull and this was no exception.

Villa will know they got close, agonisingly so. For most of the second half they seemed on the brink of an equaliser. Had they scored it, they would surely have been favourites to go on and win. Yet the moment just never arrived.

Fulham, meanwhile, can count themselves lucky not to have played most of the game with 10 men after the officials, who had a less than auspicious day, failed to spot Ryan Fredericks’ cynical stamp on Grealish 30 minutes in.

Then again, Grealish himself might well have seen red in the second half for a frustrated lunge on Cairney, while Villa did play the final 20 minutes with a man advantage after Denis Odoi received a second yellow card, yet failed to seriously work Marcus Bettinelli in the opposing goal.

For supporters, the defeat will burn for days. It will quickly give way, however, to questions about what precisely happens next.

Villa, as midfielder Mile Jedinak so pointedly observed, entered the match as a club at a crossroads.

But instead of speeding on into a brighter tomorrow, they have instead veered on to a path which may bring pain both in the short and long-term.

Plenty was gambled on winning promotion this season. Failure, no matter by how small a margin, will come at a hefty price. For two seasons, Villa have been able to flex their financial might in the Championship. That is now no longer the case, with those clubs now dropping out of the Premier League, rivals Albion among them, boasting significantly thicker wallets.

Villa, meanwhile, will receive only a considerably reduced parachute payment as they attempt to reorganise their finances under increasingly constricting Financial Fair Play regulations.

That is why Saturday was so important. Rarely before had so many futures depended on the outcome of a single game.

Some of those are now easier to determine than others. Certainly, it is difficult to envisage John Terry being in a Villa shirt next season.

Many were sceptical when the former England captain opted to extend an already trophy-laden career by joining Villa last summer.

Yet he has given everything for the cause and his pain at the final whistle was as great as any he has felt in his career. An hour or so later, his extended embrace with Bruce in the stadium’s mixed zone had a definite air of finality.

The decision of whether to come back for another year might, in truth, be less Terry’s and more Villa’s due to the club’s increasingly concerning financial situation.

Bruce had already admitted, prior to kick-off, that Villa’s team would look “totally different” next season if they missed their shot at promotion and Saturday, in light of the result, felt like the end of an entertaining but all-too-brief era.

Plans to sign Robert Snodgrass, Lewis Grabban and Sam Johnstone on permanent deals must now be shelved while the club will surely have to consider cashing in on some prized assets in order to balance the books.

Chief among them will be Grealish, who did nothing to deter his growing number of suitors with a performance of Premier League quality.

The 22-year-old may well want to stay and help his boyhood club challenge again next season. But Villa, sadly, are no longer in a position where they can easily dismiss an offer which might allow them to plug gaps elsewhere on the pitch.

True, Grealish showed the petulant side of his game which - while now far more under control - still exists with his late, lunging challenge on Cairney.

Otherwise, in the second half, he was superb and centre of everything - good, bad and ugly.

If there was to be a Villa equaliser, then Grealish would surely have been the man to conjure it. He almost did so in sensational circumstances, dancing past a series of defenders. Yet Bettinelli proved equal to the finish and the goal, just like the Premier League, would remain frustratingly out of reach.

Quite what Saturday’s result means for Bruce remains uncertain. The 57-year-old has had his share of promotion joy in the past but this still felt a cruel end to a season in which he has also battled personal turmoil away from the game.

Despite all Villa’s improvement over the past 20 months, there is no point ignoring Bruce still has his critics among the fanbase. They were given further ammunition by the insipid first-half performance which ultimately proved fatal to the team’s hopes.

Bruce, however, is determined to stay on and should be allowed to do so. For one, he has his eyes wide open to the difficulties ahead and his extensive contacts book and experience will again be an asset on a now wafer-thin budget.

Neither does it make much sense for Villa to further add to the upheaval they are already facing. In what is likely to be a summer of drastic change, a little continuity is still required.

That does not mean supporters are not entitled to feel frustrated, or even angry, at what was on the whole a hugely disappointing performance on the big stage.

Villa’s experience - coupled with Fulham’s inexperience - was supposed to provide Bruce’s men with a telling advantage.

Yet in the first-half it was they who were the nervy novices, while Fulham settled quickly and began to control proceedings with ease.

All it needed was one moment of sublime control from Ryan Sessegnon, another to pick a pass through to Cairney, who kept his cool to slide a finish past Johnstone.

It was a goal of beautiful simplicity, which for Fulham brought huge reward. For Villa, nothing will be easy from now on.