Everyone remembers watching their first FA Cup Final. Mine was in 1988, the final between Liverpool and Wimbledon.

 

I was eight-years-old and watched it with my family, hoping Liverpool would win because I was a bit of a fan of theirs at the time. Instead, Lawrie Sanchez scored the goal for the underdogs - I was gutted!

 

Now it’s my turn to play Wimbledon in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday and the good news is I will be available for selection after missing out at Chelsea on Sunday.

 

I was quite close to being OK for Chelsea but I was struggling with hamstring a bit so I didn’t quite make it. But training has gone well this week and I’ve had no problems with it.

 

The lads got a battling draw without me, I am a terrible watcher when I can’t play but I did manage to flick in and out of the game at home and was delighted when I kept seeing the score 0-0.

 

I’m delighted to be in the FA Cup. I know the Premiership is seen as the be-all by some people but if you ask the English lads, they believe the FA Cup has always been special and still is.

 

It’s the biggest cup competition we have and you know if you get to the final you will be watched all over the world. Some Premiership teams have been knocked out already but it’s dangerous for us to look beyond the fourth round at the moment. Maybe if we can beat Wimbledon, we can start dreaming a little bit.

 

Things are going well on and off the pitch for the club at the moment. The club are financially healthy and it’s always good for a team if they can go and strengthen the squad with new players, so hopefully they might be able to do that.

 

The transfer market has been pretty quiet allround so far but I did notice David James moving from West Ham to Manchester City. David was one of those players who went out of their way to make me feel welcome when I was in the England squad against Portugal about 18 months ago.

 

He came across as intelligent and a really nice bloke; I liked him, it was good of him to make a point of starting up conversations with new lads like myself.

 

I am sure he will be a big plus for the Manchester City dressing-room and on the pitch you can’t do better than replace one England goalkeeper with another.

 

Have a good weekend and enjoy the Cup!