A Villa side containing the likes of James Milner, Ashley Young, Emile Heskey and Gabriel Agbonlahor pitted their wits against Sir Alex Ferguson’s side at Wembley Stadium.
United run out 2-1 winners on the day, but things could have been much different had referee Dowd sent off Nemanja Vidic for conceding a penalty by bringing down Agbonlahor in the fifth minute.
Despite being the last man, Vidic escaped any booking, with Milner tucking away the resulting spot kick.
The Red Devils rallied back to emerge victorious thanks to a Michael Owen equalizer and a Wayne Rooney winner in the second half.
"Going back 10 years, we had a very fine side, we had some really good players," O'Neill said to Stats Perform News.
"I think if you talk about teams at that time, Manchester United were a really good counter-attacking team.
"They were a counter-attacking team who would suck sides in and then they could break with their pace on the sides and brilliant, brilliant players all over the pitch.
"But we were an excellent counter-attacking team too. We had pace in the side, strength in the back, we invited teams on to us and then we could break.
"We had Ashley Young, James Milner - who is still brilliantly plying his trade, Agbonlahor, John Carew, a strong midfield too, [Habib] Beye, [Stiliyan] Petrov, so it was a really good side.
"Sorry, I'm just digressing because I'm starting to think about my team.
"To be robbed of the final of the League Cup in 2010, the referee Mr Dowd who made up the rules as he went along!
"Vidic should have been sent off after five minutes, those were the rules of the game, but the referee decided to make up his own rules - must have been about 20 minutes before the game started.
"We would have gone on to have won that."
