FA Cup 1st Round Proper this weekend and thanks to cheetheng lee for the suggestion – but also thanks to various foreign television outlets who have decided to switch the Millwall v AFC Wimbeldon match to Monday night, thus giving me some time I thought I didn’t have, to post something FA Cup related.

Millwall fans and they don't care

I suspect though that after the foreign media saw the headlines about the West Ham rumble a while back and then chose this fixture for the wrong reasons.   Less for the romance of the cup and more for what could happen in the streets outside.

If you haven’t guessed already we are going back to 2004 and an even bigger predictable final than the one last year with Pompey and Cardiff.

I know I am being down on Millwall even before it all kicks off… ahem… It is the (non-league) AFC and not the old (now franchised) Wimbledon. But I am still concerned about some brainless so-called fans who will still see this, because of the relative short distance, as a local rivalry and want to have some.

The club itself did their best to stamp out…ah I’m not helping… this reputation by (in 2003) appointing one Dennis Wise as their player manager.       Oh.

ickle DennyThat cheeky chappy or reckless headcase (depending on who you support) once described by Lord Ferge of Trafford as somebody who could start a fight in an empty room, had been sent off 13 times in a 20-year career and has had more than his share of off-field troubles. He escaped a three-month prison sentence for assault in 1995 after being acquitted on appeal. He was sacked by his previous club Leicester for breaking a team-mate’s jaw… I don’t know what it is with football league chairmen, don’t they ever read the newspapers ? But Theo Paphitis (the then chairman) struck.. *ack* lucky with this one and little Dennis steered the club to this FA Cup Final appearance.

As for the match itself – not much to say about it. As mentioned above pretty much a foregone conclusion, the bookies gave some long odds on even a Millwall player scoring.

– For their first time in their history Millwall got to the final so for their first time in history they also released a cup final song – a re-worded familiar tune originally crooned by a certain Italian-American.

It actually bothered the charts – breaking into the UK top 75 at number 41, where it stayed for 1 week before disappearing again.

The track: “Oh Millwall” is described as “unique in being the first official FA Cup song by any club to include both players and fans singing”. Sample lyrics: “Oh Millwall, wo oh, la la la la, from the Den right down the M4”  [final was at the Millenium Stadium] “Oi, Oi, We’ll see our Lions score.”

milwall » Millwall FC 2004 – Oh Millwall

…and the original upon which it was based:

» Dean Martin – Volare

 … ah I can resist:

» Dean Martin – Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

Be’ave yerselves now.

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