JUNINHO last night denied Chesterfield their place in football history as Middlesbrough reached Wembley for the second time this season.

With a pass and a free-kick the Brazilian created the goals which will bring him face to face with Gianfranco Zola on May 17th when Middlesbrough meet Chelsea in the English FA Cup final. By the time Fabrizio Ravanelli crossed for Emerson to crack in a third, in the 89th minute, the game was up for Chesterfield.

The immediate problem facing last night's game was what to do for an encore. The original 3-3 draw at Old Trafford nine days earlier had produced a semi-final rich in drama and high on controversy, with the referee David Elleray playing his full part.

Certainly Chesterfield did not make the shorter journey to Hillsborough last night merely to whistle in the dark. They really believed they could create history by reaching Wembley and, given the state of the opposition's legs, who could blame them?

Since meeting Chesterfield, Middlesbrough had lost the League Cup final replay to Leicester City and been beaten at home by Sunderland.

Chesterfield put their faith in a replay of the fanfare for the common footballer so resoundingly echoed by Steve Claridge when he scored Leicester's late winner on the same ground a week earlier.

Chesterfield began confidently enough, getting players forward quickly, and Tom Curtis tested Ben Roberts from 25 yards. But in the 11th minute a simple combination of Brazilian and Danish thoughts left the Second Division defence marking shadows as Middlesbrough took the lead.

Emerson, lurking on the right, found Juninho, who threaded a pass through a static back four so that Mickel Beck almost ambled on to beat Billy Mercer with a shot off the inside of a post. Curtis responded with another emphatic long shot, this one just wide, but Juninho, running, passing, receiving and deceiving, had clearly decided that this time, for Chesterfield, there would be no second chances.

After 25 minutes Juninho was convinced he had put the contest beyond their reach. Accepting a return ball from Beck, the Brazilian sped past the Chesterfield defence to plant the ball into the net, only to find that the goal had been disallowed.

Elleray said he had spotted Beck pulling Jamie Hewitt's shirt. Television suggested the referee might equally have penalised Hewitt for impeding Beck. Either way it seemed hard on Juninho.

Undaunted, Middlesbrough continued to control large areas of the game. This time they were less likely to be hustled out of their passing rhythms, which meant they could vary the tempo more to their own choosing.

Consistently pressed back in their own hall, Chesterfield found it increasingly difficult to support Morris and Kevin Davies up front. The odd stray long ball continued to find Morris's tall head but now Chesterfield's attack lacked the numbers to feed off him.

Chesterfield had to get players making runs from midfield if they were to disturb the composure of Middlesbrough's defenders more than they had. But as Paul Holland and Curtis began to do this, so even more space opened up for Juninho when Middlesbrough attacked on the break.

Three minutes before the hour a second goal for Middlesbrough virtually settled the issue. Mark Jules fouled Juninho near the left-hand touchline and, as the Brazilian's free-kick swung into the goal mouth, Ravanelli rose above everybody to glance the ball into the net.

Afterwards Middlesbrough manager Brian Rob son, three times an FA Cup winner with Manchester United, agreed that Juninho had been the ace in his pack and said: "He was fantastic from first minute to last. "Every time he picked up the ball he looked as if he was going to be a danger.

"All season I've been saying that he's shown how much heart he had got. He always wants to play despite the knocks he's having.

Ravanelli, now on 29 goals for the season, looked ahead to the prospect of a continental affair at Wembley. It's very important because I want Italy to win the cup," said the former Juventus skipper. "Now we will although it will be either me or Luca (Vialli)."

Chesterfield manager John Duncan was understandably disappointed at not getting to Wembley but said: "We'll take away a lot of memories of great play and thrills.

"We've been magnificent in the cup and over the last couple of seasons, we've been great. Hopefully we can learn from this superb experience."