By JB
May 24 2004

Millwall player-boss Dennis Wise wants to add 5 new faces to the squad for next season and, with chairman Theo Paphitis promising to "strengthen to give us a chance in Europe and towards the Premiership", optimism about next season is growing. The first ever FA Cup final involving Millwall will be indelibly etched forevermore on the minds of Lions fans and players, but sadly Manchester United’s 3-0 victory may be best remembered by neutrals as a predictably one-sided affair.

Millwall’s supporters stole the show, capping another trouble-free season with their exemplary behaviour before and after the match, and really getting behind the team from beginning to end.

Ultimately it wasn’t enough to lift the Lions to an unlikely win, but optimism slowly began to grow as half-time approached with the score still at 0-0.

The killer goal arrived in the 44th minute, as Cristiano Ronaldo rose unchallenged to head Gary Neville’s right wing cross past the helpless Andy Marshall.

It was rough on Marsall and his defence, all of who had defied the odds up until then to keep United at bay.

After the game, Millwall player-boss Dennis Wise explained how the goal came about: “The lads were a little bit deflated at letting a goal in at such a crucial time, especially Neil Harris as I actually could have headed it away. But he screamed at me: ‘Time!’

“And when he said it, I thought I should drop back and then Neil’s gone: ‘Oh no!’ And then I obviously knew something was coming.

“But that’s the difference between playing at United’s level and the level that we’re playing at, as you can’t give top opposition a second or that’s what happens.

“We were disappointed really to concede a goal at that time, but we set out a plan and it had seemed like it was working. It was difficult after conceding though to get back into it.”

Apart from scoring the opening goal, right winger Ronaldo was making life extremely difficult for Millwall left back Robbie Ryan.

Wise said: “We showed Robbie Ryan a video on him. Ronaldo’s skilful and has got an awful lot of talent. He's got quality. He can open people up. He caused Robbie a lot of problems and I think Robbie knows. Robbie tried but Ronaldo should have been the man-of-the-match.”

That award went to Ruud van Nistelrooy, who scored both of United’s other goals.

The first of these came from the penalty spot in the 65th minute, after David Livermore was harshly adjudged to have fouled Ryan Giggs, who was bearing down on goal after leaving Robbie Ryan in his wake.

Van Nistelrooy may have missed a couple of spot kicks this season, but he made no mistake this time and Millwall’s impossible dream was effectively over.

To add to the sense of injustice, van Nistelrooy tapped home United’s third from an offside position, but given United’s complete domination the 3-0 scoreline was hardly flattering to Sir Alex Ferguson’s charges.

After the game, the United boss was gracious in victory and made a point of praising the Lions’ effort: "Millwall did their very best. They tried to frustrate us and hoped we would run out of ideas. For the first half hour it was difficult.

"But we got the break of scoring just before half-time which killed them off really and opened the game up. The second half was a convincing performance.”

Ferguson also heaped praise on the Millwall supporters: “They were great and the atmosphere was fantastic.”

Wise also paid tribute to the Lions faithful: “The fans were fantastic and have been since I’ve been here. They really got behind the team and they behaved themselves.”

Now thoughts turn to next season and squad strengthening which, with a UEFA Cup campaign on the horizon, needs to be done in earnest.

Wise said: “I want to add five players to the team, but whether (chairman) Theo Paphitis will let me do it I don't know.

“I’ve spoken to him about it, but we haven’t gone into depth about it. I've told him if he would like to get promotion or somewhere near promotion we need some players.

“I don’t know what he’s going to do, or whether he’s going to go for it. But I’ve only got a year left on my contract and I want to have a go of trying to get promotion.”