By Longsider
February 16 2004

A couple of newspaper reports about the game on Saturday. The final report is from the Times which talks about the racial abuse Mo Camara had to suffer on Saturday. DICHIO THE DIFFERENCE AS JENSEN STEMS A DELUGE

Millwall 1 Burnley 0
INDEPENDENT


The idea is that when teams from the same division meet in the Cup you ignore the reality of League performances. Defensively, First Division Millwall consistently pull down the heavy shutters at home while their colleagues from the same division, Burnley, concede an average of two goals a game away. Reality said: Millwall to win. And they did, but what a struggle, mainly because of a superb goalkeeping display by Burnley's Brian Jensen.

Millwall had not exactly shown great confidence that they could reach this far in the Cup when they made strenuous attempts to persuade Telford to forfeit home advantage for their delayed fourth- round fixture, which was eventually played last Wednesday. In the event, they had no need to fret, because their player-manager, Dennis Wise, who won Cup winners' medals with Wimbledon and Chelsea, battled in typical fashion and scored a win-confirming second goal in a solid Millwall performance.

Solidity is what you expect from them, and Millwall fully anticipated a rugged game yesterday. The referee chose to be lenient when Burnley's Ian Moore rammed into the back of Matt Lawrence, but took the yellow card to Tony Grant, who had acted similarly to Wise. The potential for angry repercussions was laid, but when Paul Ifill forced Jensen, in the Burnley goal, to ease a rasping 18-yard shot over the bar, minds were concentrated.

While Millwall secured the greater attacking momentum and ought to have lead when Danny Dichio headed Kevin Muscat's inswinging cross over the bar, Burnley were culpable when Robbie Ryan failed to intercept a long ball, leaving Moore to run through. However, Willie Gueret moved swiftly out of goal to save the ensuing shot with his feet.

Cahill and Ifill were by far the most constructive players on the field, but as Millwall's domination grew and their raids on goal increased so Jensen rose to the task, blocking or holding several testing shots. It seemed inevitable that Millwall would break through, and it happened after 70 minutes when Muscat's long centre was muscularly headed in by Dichio from inside the penalty area.

Burnley then worsened their situation when substitute Paul Weller clattered into Wise, who surprisingly but chivalrously appealed against a red card. Referee Howard Webb ignored him and Burnley were left to play with 10 men. Millwall's assistant manager Ray Wilkins also seemed sympathetic, saying later: "Too much physical contact has been taken out of the game.'' Burnley's Stan Ternent agreed: "It's a contact sport but if it was a push it was irresponsible and I'll deal with that, but a push is not a red card offence.''

But for the continuing diligence of Jensen, Burnley would surely have been in a more hopeless situation. Perhaps the highlight of his exceptional performance was a remarkable diving diversion of a goal-destined shot from Millwall's substitute Kevin Braniff who had already found the goalkeeper his match with earlier attempts.

Jensen, if not Burnley as a whole, deserved to see an equaliser, and in the 90th minute one should have come about when Ian Moore headed across goal to substitute Alan Moore, who missed his header and an open goal.


MILLWALL RISE WITH WISE WORDS AND DICHIO DEEDS
The Guardian

Millwall, among football's more combustible clubs, did not really need such an incendiary figure as Dennis Wise to manage them. But it has resulted in a cheerful blaze breaking out at the Den.
Millwall, already in the top half of the First Division, have now reached the Cup quarter-finals for the first time in 19 years and Wise, through his experiences with Wimbledon and Chelsea -where he won the Cup in each of the past three decades - can tell his charges all about matches such as these.

He always appeared a most bizarre choice to manage a club, for as a player his undoubted skills were overshadowed by acts of boorishness that represented a liability for the many teams he played for. There were mutterings about lunatics and asylums when he was appointed.

But he has impressed Burnley's hoary-handed manager Stan Ternent, who worked with Wise when he was Ian Porterfield's assistant manager at Chelsea.

"Dennis has organised the side," said Ternent, a manager since 1979. "What is noticeable is the goals-against column. It looks very skinny. They don't give a lot away.

"He has a chairman, Theo Paphitis, who is go-ahead. Dennis won't be frightened to make the right decisions. And he won't want to be there to be liked. He'll do the job. And when he can't play any more, and takes a step back from it, he'll be even better. He'll turn the whole club upside down, get his own players in and if they don't play his way, they won't play.

"He's an international footballer who's played in FA Cup and European finals and won them. He's a fantastic footballer and he'll make a fantastic manager. He's been round the block, at 37. I think he old-headed a few people today."

It is difficult to listen to Ternent without one's head filling with the awful image of a football team running out with Wise playing in every position and with, presumably, 11 referees to manage affairs.

Ternent's "old-headed" reference was in connection with the number of free-kicks won by the former England midfielder. Wise also fell, as if shot, when pushed by Paul Weller, who was sent off after only 10 minutes as substitute.

"I'm not Arsène Wenger but I didn't see it," said Ternent. "But I don't see how a push could be a straight card."

Ternent, still bewildered after all these years, also failed to understand how another substitute, Alan Moore, missed the ball from two yards in injury-time when scoring was the easier option. "You'll have to ask him," he shrugged.

A replay, though, would have been more than Burnley deserved. Millwall completely dominated the second half and only a succession of outstanding saves by Brian Jensen kept his side in touch.

Millwall's superior strength in midfield came not from Wise but from Tim Cahill and, playing wide on the right, Paul Ifill. The new signing Danny Dichio, though, was their match-winner with a 70th-minute header from Kevin Muscat's cross.

Already Dichio has repaid a big chunk of that £500,000 - which could rise to £650,000 - that Millwall paid West Bromwich Albion for his services.

"It was nice from the club's point of view that they took a gamble and it paid off," Neil Harris, Dichio's partner up front, said afterwards. "The fee may have been a bit over the top but he's here and that's the main thing.

"I thought we played very poorly but we are through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and most of us, including myself, have never got that far before."

PAYBACK TIME AS DAN TURNS MATCH FOR LIONS
News of the World


DANNY Dichio sent Millwall roaring into the quarter-finals for the first time in 19 years to cement his name in South London folklore.

The Lions fought hard to prise the lanky target man from West Brom - and he responded with his sixth goal in five matches.

Millwall pushed the boat out to complete a permanent deal for Dichio which could ultimately cost them as much as £675,000 - but the big man has already paid off a sizeable chunk of that.

His priceless 69th-minute goal ended some stubborn resistance from Burnley, themselves quarter-finalists last season.

Dichio homed in on skipper Kevin Muscat's curling right- wing centre like a heat-seeking missile to crash an unstoppable header past Burnley's impressive keeper Brian Jensen.

Millwall just about deserved it after a niggling match, on and off the pitch, had threatened to boil over.

Predictably, Millwall player- manager Dennis Wise was involved in some of the dust-ups, being booked and then seeing two Burnley players cautioned for fouls on him.

The Clarets' cause wasn't helped by the needless dismissal of sub Paul Weller - the footballer, not the singer - just 10 minutes after coming on in the 62nd minute.

He was instantly shown the red card for shoving Wise in the back and was sent packing.

After a lacklustre start temperatures were raised after 13 minutes following an incident involving Burnley striker Ian Moore and Millwall centre-back Matt Lawrence.

In an off-the-ball flurry just to the right of Millwall's area, Lawrence fell to the ground and didn't move after appearing to be caught by Moore's arm.

As he lay motionless on the turf, several players from both sides rushed in. Referee Howard Webb then took Moore aside for a lecture, but the home fans' perception wasn't helped when the official did not adminster a caution.

After the match restarted Paul Ifill popped up on the left wing to deliver a blistering left-foot goalbound volley.

Jensen brilliantly tipped the deadly drive over the bar, then saw Lawrence head over from the resulting corner.

Burnley's black left-back Mo Camara was being booed by a section of Millwall fans virtually every time he touched the ball. It was a disgraceful indictment, if indeed it was racially motivated by some supporters, at a club which prides itself on being in the vanguard of the anti-racial campaign. Meanwhile, Burnley striker Moore - who has a great scoring record against Millwall - was keen to remind the Lions of his potency.

He surged past left-back Robbie Ryan and drilled a low ball into the box which Gueret did well to palm outwards at full stretch.

The dashing Dichio twice went close within two minutes, diving in to head Kevin Muscat's cross over the bar and then threatening again on 27 minutes.

This time the in-form striker connected with a left-wing free-kick from Wise, but could only steer his effort just past a post off his left thigh.

Burnley should have taken the lead 60 seconds later when Moore's pace punctured Millwall's offside trap.

Right-back Neil Wood's long pass sent him clear of Ryan and Moore seemed sure to score, but as he took precise aim with his right foot Gueret somehow saved the shot with his left foot. In first-half stoppage time Jensen's reflexes came to Burnley's aid once again, catching Tim Cahill's lofted header from Ifill's right-wing cross.

The action was fast, furious and often ungainly in the second period, but one great moment of skill on 58 minutes illuminated proceedings.

Star man Ifill cut into the box, twisted past two defenders and fired a cracking right-foot drive which cannoned off the top of a post.

After Dichio's goal, both sides wasted fine chances. Jensen made two great saves from substitute Peter Sweeney and Dichio before Burnley sub Alan Moore spurned a gilt-edged last-minute opportunity to level the scores and earn the Clarets a replay at Turf Moor.

Ian Moore headed an inviting centre back across the box and somehow namesake Alan managed to head the ball wide from one yardout .

It just wasn't Burnley's day - and Millwall's darling Danny boy made sure of that.


FANNING FIRES OF BIGOTRY
The Times
Millwall 1 Burnley 0


THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. Somehow, Millwall have reached the sixth round of the FA Cup, which means that it might take only a home tie against Tranmere Rovers, followed by a pairing with Sunderland, whom they have already beaten twice this season, to reach the final. It’s that close. And then, instead of merely vomiting on their own doorstep, the moronic tendency that refuses to detach itself from the club could descend on Wales and cover the entire Millennium Stadium with bile — all in front of a global television audience. That should do wonders for London’s Olympic bid. If the FA decided to rig today’s draw, it might not be inundated with complaints.
Not that there is any doubt their team deserves to be dreaming this morning of what may lie ahead. They beat Burnley fair and square on Saturday. And, of course, there are plenty of other places (Cardiff, Stoke, Doncaster, Wisbech, Leeds, Derby . . . the list goes on) where it has sometimes been difficult to take much pleasure from watching a match because of the unpleasant atmosphere generated by supporters. Doubtless, on occasion, it still is. Even Burnley might admit that Turf Moor can be hostile territory for the visiting fan.



But no matter how hard Millwall work to deter the lunatic fringe, the New Den, like the old Den, remains unparallelled, a uniquely poisonous, malevolent, ugly, depressing venue for a sporting contest. Ranters to the left of you, racists to the right: they may be a minority, but they are a bloody big minority and when a stadium designed to hold 20,000 is only half-full, when every syllable of vitriol can be heard and every hand gesture detected, their menace grows and their presence can suffocate you.

Mohammed Camara, the black Burnley left back, was targeted for verbal abuse throughout, while one fan in the West Stand who effed and ceed and spat and bellowed non-stop — no matter that there were women and children near him — was allowed to keep up his vile invective for an hour before stewards removed him. Hundreds of others were happy to indulge in more sporadic outbursts of venom, gesticulating at opposition players or officials, while those in the East Stand, when they weren ’t making monkey noises, seemed preoccupied with baiting fans in claret and blue. All this when Millwall’s own starting XI included two non-whites.

Perhaps the atmosphere in the stands transferred itself on to the pitch, for this was as full-blooded a cup-tie as you could get, with no prisoners and — until Daniele Dichio met Kevin Muscat’s superb cross with an unstoppable header midway through the second half — no chances taken. Four bookings and a sending-off scarcely reflected the ferocious level of commitment as Howard Webb courageously tried to let the game flow. “If the referee had applied the letter of the law, it could have been seven versus seven,” Ray Wilkins, the Millwall assistant manager, said after a match in which only Brian Jensen, the Burnley goalkeeper, stood between the Londoners and a margin of victory that reflected their greater goalscoring threat, no matter that Alan Moore missed a late sitter.

Wilkins’s boss was among those to be grateful, though. Had Webb a better view of the early tangle that ended with Dennis Wise’s studs coming into painful contact with Neil Wood’s shoulder, the Millwall player-manager’s career sendings-off total would surely have risen to 13. After that, Wise seemed to become a target for retribution — Wood and Tony Grant were booked for clattering into him, Paul Weller, a second-half substitute, dismissed within 11 minutes for shoving him to the ground.

Wise, booked himself and with his team bottom of the Nationwide League first division fair play league, loved every minute of it. Somehow, in a competition that Johnny Haynes, Tom Finney and George Best never won, he is still in with a chance of a fourth winner’s medal.

Millwall (4-4-2): W Guéret 5 — K Muscat 6, M Lawrence 5, D Ward 5, R Ryan 3 (sub: P Sweeney, 71min) — P Ifill 6, D Wise 5, T Cahill 5, D Livermore 5 — D Dichio 6, N Harris 4 (sub: K Braniff, 62 6). Substitutes not used: A Marshall, M McCammon, A Roberts. Booked: Wise, Dichio.


Burnley (4-4-1-1): B Jensen 8 — L Roche 5 (sub: L Chadwick, 77), D May 6, M McGregor 5 (sub: A Moore, 85), M Camara — G Little 6, R Chaplow 5, A Grant 5, N Wood 5 — R Blake 5 (sub: P Weller, 62 2) — I Moore 5. Substitutes not used: P Rachubka, B Orr. Booked: Grant, Wood. Sent off: Weller.


Shots on target: (h) 11 (a) 1. Fouls: (h) 13 (a) 20. Offsides: (h) 6 (a) 2

Referee: H Webb 9. Attendance: 10,420