The FA Cup final would be a highlight of most players’ careers, but it turned into a nightmare for Tony Cascarino. Can his old club Millwall help him erase the bad memories this year? Er, well, no probably not…
I’m a Millwall fan, so seeing them in the FA Cup fi nal this month will be an unbelievable experience for me. It’s brought back memories of my own FA Cup final experience playing for Chelsea against Manchester United in 1994.
Sadly, it didn’t exactly go to plan – I got left out. I was in good form at the time, but fellow striker Mark Stein had come back after six weeks out injured and played the week before. After the game he didn’t train in the build-up to the cup final and obviously wasn’t fit enough, but he was picked on the big day and I was left on the bench.
It was a real disappointment for me. I started on the bench alongside Glenn Hoddle, our player-manager, who had called himself up even though he hadn’t been part of the squad for weeks. That was Glenn being Glenn. He brought himself on, thinking he would change the game. Well he did – we were 2-0 down and we ended up losing 4-0!
If I sound like a bitter and twisted old man, that’s because I am. I was in really good form and I would love to have played. But it was a still a great experience. The build-up is fabulous – there’s so much hype – and it was still the pinnacle of my club career because I never won anything in the game.
So what about this year’s showdown? Some people are unhappy about Millwall reaching the final because of the club’s image, but they have taken great strides in recent years to rid themselves of their hooligan problem.
When I watched Millwall as a kid, it was said half the fans had a criminal record, and it was true, but things are different now. Some of the rowdier element can’t get in any more because chairman Theo Paphitis has introduced a membership system. Millwall could have sold more tickets for the final in Cardiff by letting anybody buy a ticket, but the club wants the right kind of fans and I applaud them for that.
As a fan I still go regularly and sit in the stands. I’ve taken my boy along once or twice and the atmosphere is good. It was frustrating when I played there in the 1980s to know that games would be disrupted by crowd trouble. Now you just get the normal hostility of a football crowd, which is fine – the passion of supporters is what football’s all about.
Millwall are improving on the pitch, too, particularly since Dennis Wise took over as player-manager last October. I played with Dennis at Chelsea for 18 months and we became good friends, but we also had a couple of rucks along the way.
I remember once having a fight with him in the gym before a game. It started as fun, but it turned a bit nasty and I drew blood first. The other players were outside the window, chanting ‘Fight! Fight!’ like in the schoolyard. I’m 6ft 3in while he’s 5ft 5in, but I remember Dennis saying, ‘Come on then, you big bastard, I haven’t finished with you!’ He wouldn’t let me get the better of him.
That’s typical Dennis. He’s a winner. He won’t quit, no matter who he comes up against. That shows in the way Millwall play with passion and it’s why he has turned them round pretty quickly.
I didn’t expect him to become a manager but you could have predicted he would make it a success. He was released by Southampton as a youngster and ever since then he’s been fighting to prove people wrong. At Wimbledon, he had to prove he could play, and he did. At Chelsea, the fans were on his back in the early months but he turned them round. In his court case against Leicester City, he fought for wrongful dismissal and won.
Dennis has a lot of qualities as a person that he has put into his management style. He’s very single-minded and will not shy away from telling his players what they need to know.
At Cardiff, his midfield battle with Roy Keane will certainly capture attention, but a couple of other Millwall names are worth looking out for. Paul Ifill is a tricky player. He can play down the wing or through the middle and he makes life difficult for defenders. Neil Harris, the striker, led the line very well in the semi-final win over Sunderland too.
But Tim Cahill is the star for me. The Aussie international midfielder is a terrific player. He can pass the ball, he’s got bundles of energy and he gets on the end of crosses. He has a tremendous leap for a man of his size and a superb sense of timing. Cahill is outstanding – he’s destined for the Premiership in the next two to three years.
Can Millwall win it? I don’t give them a chance. Their best chance of scoring is from a free kick because Dennis delivers an exceptional dead ball and Cahill or Danny Dichio can get on the end of it. But how are they going to handle Ryan Giggs or Cristiano Ronaldo or Ruud van Nistelrooy? United have simply got too much to offer.
The gulf between the best teams and the rest is huge these days. That’s why it’s Manchester United for me. But I will give Millwall all my support at the Millennium Stadium – and I’ll be hoping they can make up for my FA Cup disappointment a decade ago.
