Manchester Utd v Millwall
The FA Cup Final
Millennium Stadium
22 May 2004


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You wouldn’t regard Andy Cole as the over-sentimental type. But when former club Manchester United visited Blackburn last month, he couldn’t get over the Reds supporters chanting his name from start to finish at Ewood Park.

"It was quite unbelievable. I had to stop and check that I was wearing a Blackburn shirt," he said.

"Manchester United are my team. I had a rapport with the fans when I was there and it clearly hasn’t gone away.

"I always get a good reception when I go back to Old Trafford and the way the fans cheered me at Ewood Park last time filled me with pride.

"They are top drawer supporters and I’m going to be rooting for them against Millwall on Saturday.

"I left the club on very good terms with Sir Alex Ferguson and had a quick word with him while I was warming up to play against United.

"I will always have a special soft spot for the club."

Cole won two FA Cup winners medals with United in 1996 and 1999 and they were both memorable occasions.

"They were both sweet," he says. "We beat Liverpool who were one of our biggest rivals in 1996. The 1999 victory was against one of my former clubs Newcastle.

"Even though we had the Champions League final a few days later, we did celebrate the FA Cup win because that gave us the Double and that was a great achievement in its own right.

"The manager allowed the team to have a couple of drinks although it wasn’t an all-night party because we had Bayern Munich coming up."

Ironically, the first FA Cup Final Cole can remember watching as a seven-year-old in his hometown of Nottingham involved Manchester United and Arsenal, who would go onto be his first club. Arsenal won the match 3-2.

One thing missing from Cole’s impressive C.V. though is actually scoring in an FA Cup Final.

At 32-years-old, he’s certainly not too old to put that right although it remains uncertain which club he will be at next season.

Cole scored 11 goals for Blackburn last season and formed a good partnership with Jonathan Stead.

But with only a year left on his contract, he will have talks with manager Graeme Souness when he returns from a summer break in the West Indies.

The striker, second only to Alan Shearer in the Premiership scoring charts, is hardly a serial mover with just five clubs in 16 years – Arsenal, Bristol City, Newcastle, Manchester United and now Blackburn.

"The important thing at my age is to enjoy my football," he says. "I don’t know what will happen when I get back from holiday. When I join a club it is for the long haul so we will have some discussions and sees what happens.

"Every kid dreams of scoring in an FA Cup Final. Yeah, it’s still an ambition of mine to do that although I can’t complain about two winners’ medals."