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


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Jimmy Melia played for hometown club Liverpool between 1953 and 1964 and was there at the start of the Bill Shankly era.

As a manager, he took Brighton to the 1983 FA Cup Final against Manchester United, since when he has managed in Dubai, Kuwait, Portugal and is now a youth coach in Dallas, USA.

Jimmy Melia is 66 years old now and life is good.

He is still a social animal, even if the white dancing shoes - made famous in the run-up to the 1983 Final – don’t get much of an airing these days.

"I’m in Dallas, it’s 90 degrees and I work with kids from 10 to 18 every day," he reports proudly.

"I still go out a lot. In England people my age would be in bed by ten o’clock but not here. Everything is geared to enjoying your life.

"My musical tastes aren’t really disco though. Sinatra and Country & Western is more my thing these days."

Melia hit Cup football like a tour de force in 1983 when Brighton beat Newcastle and Liverpool en route to the FA Cup Final where they were beaten by Manchester United after a replay.

That hardly tells the whole story, though, with Gordon Smith failing to score after being put clean through to win The Cup.

"Gordon says he is reminded of that wherever he goes in the world," says Melia. "We had a banquet after the first game and the TV guy asked me in front of everyone if I blamed Smith for not winning The Cup.

"Of course I didn’t. I said you had to give the goalkeeper Gary Bailey credit for the save and also people should remember Gordon did score our first goal.

"My happiest memory of that year was winning at Anfield on the way to the Final. That was special for me because I was brought up just two miles from the ground and played for the club for 12 years. My mother still lives in the same house I grew up in.

"I remember Bill Shankly arriving at Liverpool. We lost 4-0 to Cardiff in his first match! But he was an incredible man because of his passion for football.

"The signings of Ron Yeats and Ian St John were masterstrokes and he slowly turned the club around."

Melia was buoyed this week by Brighton reaching the Second Division Play-Off Final.

Now he’s looking forward to a good Cup Final on Saturday.

"I think it would be the biggest upset ever if Millwall beat Manchester United. But Millwall should go out there and have some fun. If they can hold United for the first 30 minutes, you never know.

"I used to watch all the matches at a pub called The Londoner but there’s more football on television here now and I will be able to watch the Final at home."

Home for the much-travelled Melia is now Dallas.

"I’ve been here for 14 years now," he says. "It is the fifth country I’ve worked in and I love it. I coach kids from 10 to 18 and I’m even bringing over a group of under-15s for a tournament in Liverpool this summer."

The accent is a hybrid of Scouse and deep South these days but Melia clearly will never forget his FA Cup class of ’83.

"We had some very good players: Gary Stevens, Jimmy Case, Steve Foster, Michael Robinson.

"Robbo was a good talker even then. He would always want to chat about different aspects of the game and I’m delighted he has done so well as a TV personality in Spain.

"I still see some of the lads when I’m over. I hope Brighton can reach Division One and get a new ground. That would be tremendous."