IT MAY not have been the most difficult goal to score in Blues’ history, but there is no doubt it was the most significant – and celebrated.

When Obafemi Martins took advantage of a combined calamity by Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny to sidefoot an 89th-minute winner in the simplest of fashion, it was the blue-heaven moment that has taken 136 years to arrive.

For the 30,000-plus supporters who made the trek to Wembley to see Blues in their first major final at the stadium since 1956, who have been used to nothing but misery and near-misses and ridicule, it was the blue-heaven moment to never, ever forget.

Blues won this competition when it was in its infancy in 1963.

But yesterday it was the mature modern version, one that mattered, one that opened the gateway to European competition for Blues.

And let no-one suggest they got lucky, judging by the manner of Martins’ trophy-clinching goal.

Blues’ triumph was deserved and not just the dogged will and cussed resolve we have become accustomed to, but also for their tactical acumen and some passages of good, coherent football.

Much of the pre-Wembley talk was of Arsenal’s six-year trophy drought and how victory could be the start of something big for them. The quadruple this season, even.

Well, try 48 years – that’s a real drought.

Blues were highly motivated to cause a shock. They wanted it to be known that this final wasn’t all about Arsenal.

They backed themselves. They backed their approach, their propensity for hard work and the quality of deed and mind.

And with such a passionate and emotional support with them every kick of the way this was, indeed, Blues’ time.

Alex McLeish decided on Nikola Zigic up front on his own to start, with Keith Fahey and Sebastian Larsson out wide.

It’s a line-up he had used against Arsenal before. Had Blues sat too deep, then the formation would have simply invited far too much pressure.