FA Cup Final 2004

The 2004 FA Cup Final took place on 22 May 2004 and was the 4th to be played at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. It was contested between Manchester United who had finished 2nd in the FA Premier League that season and Millwall who had finished 10th in Division One. In a one sided contest, Manchester United secured their eleventh FA Cup victory with a strike from Cristiano Ronaldo and a brace from Ruud van Nistelrooy.

[edit] Players and Officials


MANCHESTER UNITED 3 (1) Red shirts/White shorts/Black socks
GK	14	Tim Howard	84'
DF	2	Gary Neville
DF	6	Wes Brown
DF	27	Mikaël Silvestre
DF	22	John O'Shea
MF	7	Cristiano Ronaldo 44'	84'
MF	24	Darren Fletcher	84'
MF	16	Roy Keane (C)
MF	11	Ryan Giggs
FW	18	Paul Scholes
FW	10	Ruud van Nistelrooy pen 65' 81'
Substitutes:
GK	13	Roy Carroll	84'
DF	2	Philip Neville
MF	8	Nicky Butt	84'
MF	19	Eric Djemba-Djemba
FW	20	Ole Gunnar Solskjær	84'
Coach:
Alex Ferguson


MILLWALL 0 (0) Blue shirts with white sleeves/Blue shorts/Blue socks
GK	33	Andy Marshall
DF	3	Robbie Ryan	74'
DF	12	Darren Ward
DF	2	Matthew Lawrence
DF	25	Marvin Elliott
MF	26	Peter Sweeney
MF	8	David Livermore
MF	19	Dennis Wise (C) 48'	89'
MF	7	Paul Ifill
MF	4	Tim Cahill
FW	9	Neil Harris	75'
Substitutes:
GK	13	Willy Guéret
DF	27	Alan Dunne
MF	37	Barry Cogan	74'
MF	11	Curtis Weston	89'
FW	23	Mark McCammon	75'
Coach:
Dennis Wise

STATISTICS

MATCH RULES

Home teams listed first.

Round 3: Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester United

Round 4: Northampton Town 0-3 Manchester United

Round 5: Manchester United 4-2 Manchester City

Quarter-Final: Manchester United 2-1 Fulham

Semi-Final: Arsenal 0-1 Manchester United

Home teams listed first.

Round 3: Millwall 2-1 Walsall

Round 4: Telford United 0-2 Millwall

Round 5: Millwall 1-0 Burnley

Quarter-Final: Millwall 0-0 Tranmere Rovers

Replay:Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Millwall

Semi-Final: Sunderland 0-1 Millwall

At the trophy presentation all the Manchester United wore shirts saying "Davis 36" after the death of young midfielder Jimmy Davis who died in car crash on his way to a Watford match, who he had joined on loan. The club have since retired the number in his memory.

Despite being injured and unable to keep goal for Millwall at their 2004 FA Cup Final appearance, Milwall manager Dennis Wise insisted that Tony Warner, the club's first-choice goalkeeper at the time, should get a runners-up because if he had been fit he would have played in the final.

Milwall's Curtis Weston beat the 125-year record held by James F. M. Prinsep of Clapham Rovers after coming on as a 89th minuite substitute replacing Dennis Wise. The record that Weston holds is being the youngest ever player to appear in an FA Cup Final. Weston's age was 17 years 119 days, beating Prinsep's age of 17 years and 245 days by 126 days.

Millwall were the first FA Cup Finalists since Sunderland (who played in the 1992 Final) not to be playing in the 1st tier of English Football. Sunderland lost 2-0 against Liverpool.