Millwall v Tranmere Rovers
FA Cup Sixth Round
Sunday 07 March 2004

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The London club have actually appeared in three semi-finals and the third of those set a new FA Cup record.

They were a Southern League team known as "Millwall Athletic" when they won through to the last four in 1900 after beating Jarrow, QPR and Aston Villa. Then Southampton knocked them out 3-0 in a semi-final replay at Elm Park, Reading.

In those far-off days of the Cup there were only three rounds before the semi-final stage and "Athletic" successfully negotiated ties against Luton Town, Preston North End and Everton to make the semis again in 1903. On that occasion Derby County were their nemesis, 3-0 winners at Villa Park.

Thirty-four years later, in 1937, Millwall’s third and most recent FA Cup semi-final appearance made history. Then in the Third Division (South), they became the first club from outside the top two divisions to line up in the Cup’s last four.

Wigan-born Dave Mangnall was the Lions’ hero during that great Cup run. He was a veteran when he joined Millwall from West Ham United for a £3,000 fee in May 1936. He had already starred for Leeds, Huddersfield and Birmingham.

Mangnall still had a brilliantly deceptive body-swerve that gave him room to shoot with both feet and from any angle. He scored within two minutes of his Millwall debut and was leading marksman at Cold Blow Lane in his first two seasons.

But it was his goals in The FA Cup that hit the headlines. He hit ten altogether in that memorable 1936-37 campaign and this is how the Lions progressed to the semi-finals.

1st Round: Aldershot 1 Millwall 6 (Mangnall scored four)
2nd Round: Millwall 7 Gateshead 0 (Mangnall scored one)
3rd Round: Millwall 2 Fulham 0 (Mangnall scored one)
4th Round: Millwall 3 Chelsea 0
5th Round: Millwall 2 Derby County 1 (Mangnall scored one)
6th Round: Millwall 2 Manchester City 0 (Mangnall scored two)

The tie with Derby set an attendance record at The Den that would never be beaten, with 48,762 fans crammed into the ground. Nearly 63,000 saw Millwall’s Cup dreams come to an end when Sunderland beat them 2-1 in the semi-final at Leeds Road, Huddersfield. Almost inevitably, Mangnall notched the Lions’ goal.

Now Dennis Wise’s Lions could be 90 minutes away from emulating those heroes from the distant past.