Merv Payne

Ordinary Boys - Millwall's FA Youth Cup Winning Class of 1979 Merv Payne

They were just a bunch of ordinary football-mad boys from the local estates, but together on the football pitch they were unstoppable. This is the story of the Millwall team that won the FA Youth Cup for the first time in the club's history in 1979, but they were so much more than just a team. An inseparable band of brothers, they defied the odds by not only beating some of the top teams in the country on their way to the final (including Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest) they out-footballed them. What was all the more remarkable was that they did it while the football club imploded around them amidst a constant wave of financial and off-the-pitch troubles as it plummeted into footballing oblivion. The club's dwindling fortunes would surely be turned around with the help of this new crop of brilliant young players graduating to the team. Unfortunately, as we know, football isn't always quite as simple as that. This is the story of the players that made Millwall FC history in 1979, where they came from - and what happened next.