I lost my faith and innocence but Dad would be proud today, reveals Cardiff boss Jones

There is no other description for the place in which he found himself after being ensnared in a so-called police "trawling" operation.

Following false accusations by hardened criminals, Jones ended up in court in 2000 facing more than 20 charges of physical and sexual child abuse dating back to his days as a social worker in Merseyside.

The judge at Liverpool Crown Court threw out the case, criticising the Crown Prosecution Service for having brought the matter to trial. But it cost Jones several hundred thousand pounds in legal fees and it cost him his Barclays Premier League job at Southampton.

It cost him more than that. "I've lost my innocence and I've lost my faith," Jones said in a Sportsmail interview during his early days at Wolves. "Faith in the police, faith in people in general."

He knew the incident would stay with him. "It will never end," he said. "It's baggage that will always be with me. If I ever left this club and went to another, it would be brought up."

Jones could scarcely have been envisaging the achievement of an FA Cup Final, but his one regret is that his father will not be there to see him lead out his Cardiff side.

"I blame the people and the police who were involved in it for the death of my Dad because he was taken ill virtually straight away and he wasn't an ill man before," he told Sky Sports yesterday.

"So, this is for my Dad and all my family. As a child I went to FA Cup Finals with my Dad, so it's something for him."

The episode lives with him, too, in the vile chants that, eight years on, can be still heard from sick opposition fans.

An outwardly unemotional yet passionate man, stubborn and determined, Jones remains angry at what he and his family were forced to endure while insisting he feels no bitterness.

If the incident has framed his thinking and his behaviour, both as a person and a manager, it does not show.

"I don't think the experience changed him," said former Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe. "He is fairly level headed and resilient. Lowe suspended Jones on full pay, arguing he needed to be free to clear his name. Eventually, he paid him off.

"We had a fantastic relationship," Lowe said. "He is a good human being, a nice guy. His strength as a manager is in his ability to judge a player and surround himself with good coaches. He does not pick fights when he does not need to. But there is a ruthless streak in him."

Lowe has employed both Jones and Harry Redknapp. It would be fair to say that if Lowe were sending a good-luck message to one of the Cup Final managers, it would not be to Redknapp.

Stuart Gray, now the manager at Northampton Town, was Jones' assistant at Southampton and Wolves. Gray played at Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough and recognises a similarity between his friend and the managerial legend.

"Clough had a very different style but they have one thing in common," Gray said. "Dave is also good at building teams. Like Clough, he has the ability to acquire players others thought too old or disruptive and get the best out of them."

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Robbie Fowler are cases in point, even if injury has prevented Cardiff reaping much benefit from Fowler.

Free transfers and loans have been his currency at a club constantly staving off administration. When results deteriorated last autumn, an unsavoury campaign included death threats and texts challenging him to fights.

A less steadfast manager, one who had not gone through what he had, might have been unnerved. It was as if chairman Peter Ridsdale, no stranger to vitriolic attack himself, knew what would be required of the Cardiff manager.

Ridsdale said: "He was a man I admired for how he came through his adversity. The job he has done here has been underrated."

Jones would welcome a little money to spend. It still rankles with him that his time at Wolves coincided with a period when the previously profligate Sir Jack Hayward closed his wallet.

There is no love lost there. After beating Sheffield United in the 2003 Championship play-off final, Jones tossed the trophy to Hayward in a told-you-so fashion and with words to that effect.

"Pity it's 12 months too late," Hayward replied. Jones said yesterday: "The next stage for this club to develop is to be able to go out and buy a player.

"We've done OK and we're coming along nicely but it would be nice to dip into the market rather than pick up free transfers and bargain buys."

Jones has been to Hell and back. Today he is at Wembley, English football's idea of Heaven. And he intends to be back.