Parry dreams of Cup upset

"They have already won the Worthington Cup this year, and they're closing in on the UEFA Cup and qualification for the Champions League. Surely they can spare us this one?" It is 27 years since Wycombe first registered on Parry's horizon. Wanderers, then of the Isthmian League, made the third round of the 1974 FA Cup (won by Liverpool) and were at home to Middlesbrough - "a big club in those days", according to Parry.

Fresh down from his home city, he had no idea where Wycombe was when his BBC Radio bosses assigned him to the match.

He added: "The game was at the old ground, Loakes Park, and I had a great time. It was 0-0, and we should have won it, but we lost in the final minute of the replay. They were so friendly and hospitable and over the years I started going frequently.

"I was unsure what to do when they asked me to become a director 12 years ago. I'd always been wary of the directors I'd come across, and been far more at home with the managers and players. Directors tended to be a bit pompous and I could never decide if they were real fans.

"But eventually I thought it was an opportunity to be a different kind of director, so I did it. Now I'm a supporter first and a director second. Too many directors get sucked into some phoney world of always being nice about the opposition, applauding politely when the opposition scores, not showing any emotion when your team scores.

"It seems so insincere. Why should directors be any different from anyone else in the ground?

"I've got in trouble for showing too much emotion in the directors' box."

Those who witnessed Parry's unhinged celebrations at Filbert Street after Wanderers' extraordinary sixth-round victory will not doubt it. A certain amount of capering across the pitch propelled by windmill arms was involved. But if a chap cannot caper at such a time, when can he?

He confessed with some embarrassment: "I didn't know the cameras were on me. If the miracle happens on Sunday, I can't imagine what it will be like. I'm so excited and proud at the thought of just watching these two teams that I love so much. A tear in the eye? God, yes.

"I don't go along with the usual line that says it will be a great day out for us. That's accepting we're there to be beaten. We know that it's a great achievement to make it this far, but we're not going along to make up the numbers and be the plucky little underdogs. We've got a bunch of averagely talented, but wholly committed players who have got enormous self-belief and who simply won't give up on anything. Lawrie Sanchez (the manager) is not afraid of anyone's reputation. Before we played Leicester I thought if we played as well as possible and they had a bad day, we might get a draw out of it. Lawrie was convinced we would not lose, and he'll think the same about Liverpool.

"When Liverpool play Barcelona tonight, it will be the first Liverpool game I've ever gone into hoping they have a really hard match, run themselves ragged, maybe pick up a couple of knocks along the way to make it easier for us on Sunday. We need absolutely everything to go for us, every outside influence to be in our favour."

THAT already seems the case, judging by the continuing sheer improbability of Wycombe's Cup run. Against Wolves in the fourth round they faced a replay away and scored in the last five minutes to win.

Against Wimbledon at home they were 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go and fought back for a draw. Then in the replay, they had a man sent off, saved a penalty in the 90th minute, equalised in the 120th minute and won the game with the 20th penalty of the shoot-out. And then came Roy Essandoh's storybook heroics at Leicester.

Parry said, shaking his head: "One week before that match we fielded two strikers who had never played a League game, never played alongside each other and never played with their nine team-mates.

"It's a pub team, isn't it? It shouldn't happen, but it has. It is. We don't have a chance. Do we?"