Millwall v Brighton: FA Cup quarter-final – live!

104 min Murray finds Izquierdo, who slides across the box to March. He nips inside and tries to do the keeper with the eyes, looking far and shooting near, but Martin pushes behind and the corner comes to nowt.

103 min Bernardo goes down the left and crosses; Martin comes to collect, haunted look plastered across his coupon.

102 min Millwall look really tired now, barely able to clear beyond where the Subbuteo shooting line would be.

100 min Brighton need to get March on the ball and men into the box. They’re struggling to work the angles at the moment.

96 min Here come Brighton again! A long cross is expertly teed up for Meredith by Morison, and there are plenty of players between man and keeper … so his low shot is a real tester for Ryan who palms out … and Romeo can’t get his knee over the follow-up, which he skies!

95 min “From half-time (just catching up),” emails Geoff Wignall, “I don’t see how anything, not even the FA Cup can have a power that’s both supernatural (i.e. beyond the natural) and preternatural (i.e. extraordinary but still natural).”

I was joking. It’s the way I tell em!

94 min Izquierdo finds possession on the left, cuts inside, and rifles a low shot that Martin saves by his near post – earning him the rare privilege of being patronised by Pearce and Jenas.

93 min “Re: Carvalho foul,” emails Rutger Smyth-Emberry. “It was against Barcelona. John Terry scored. As a Chelsea fan I laughed.”

As a non-Chelsea fan I also laughed. Mourinho Mk I was a lot of fun most of the time.

92 min I guess Millwall will be hoping for penalties now – a disappointment in context, but one I’m sure they’d have took, as Ryan Giggs would say, before kick-off. .

“Everyone loves a cup upset but at this stage of the tournament is it a good thing to have such an imbalance in strength between the teams remaining in the competition?” asks David Wall. “It risks becoming a procession for City now. Perhaps Wolves can genuinely challenge them but on a neutral ground you wouldn’t think either Millwall or Watford will offer much resistance at all. No one wants the completely one sided affair that, for instance, United vs Millwall turned out to be (no matter who you support).”

Yes, I was at United-Millwall, and it was odd going to a final not even thinking about the match, but I couldn’t begrudge Millwall the place they won fairly and squarely. Also, don’t sleep on Watford, who’ve given City good games before – in 2008, Man United, who won league and Champions League, lost at home to Portsmouth in the last eight.

Well that livened up! And now we’ve got another half-hour!

Oh dear oh dear oh dear! March smacks a curler seeking the back post, and Martin, thinking it’s going wide, is too far off his line and too late to act; at the last split split-second, he panics, parries, and pushes it into the top corner! Well! Solly March has changed this game! The FA Cup is the absolute don!

90+4 min March tangles with Leonard and it’s a free-kick to Brighton, 35 yards out….

90+3 min Final change for Millwall: off goes Wallace, on comes Hutchinson.

90+3 min March, who’s made a difference, slides Izquierdo in down the left, and he opens his body, making clear his intention, before punching a backpass into Martin’s midriff.

90+1 min Bernardo crosses from the left and Murray flicks into Pearce’s side; there’s a penalty appeal, but nothing doing. Then Propper crosses, and Matin claims.

90 min Change for Millwall: club legend, Steve Morison, replaces Gregory, who’s run his life into the ground.

Cat/pigeons interface: March dashes around two challenges and cuts back; the ball ricochets and bounces at the near post as Locadi swivels and absolutely chleanses a left-footer that rushes high past Martin.

87 min At Craven Cottage, Virgil Baresi has just presented Ryan Babbel with an equaliser.

85 min Change for Millwall: Meredith replaces the scorer of the second goal, O’Brien.

84 min I seem to recall Chelsea scoring a key goal in the first Mourinho season that involved Ricardo Carvalho fouling someone in a move that’d clearly been practised on the training ground. It takes a particular kind of mind to rehearse breaking the rules, and football needs as many of them as possible.

82 min The draw for the semis follows this game. I think we all know that it’s going to be City-Millwall and Watford-Wolves; when your luck’s in, it’s in.

81 min “What does kindergarten choir mean?” emails Dan C. “I googled it and that didn’t help, I don’t want to do any more research lest I end up on some sort of list…”

Lots of noise and effort, not quite so much competence and quality.

Well! Wallace finds space down the right, nashes to the line and cuts back and across for O’Brien who forces home. Millwall are gahn ta Weberlee!

79 min Brighton haven’t made a single decent chance today. That is velly velly poower as my grand would’ve said.

77 min “There’s something about this commentary that’s touching on poetry, conveying something of the vanity of human endeavour,” reckons Samuel Cardwell. “I haven’t felt like this since I watched all of Russia vs Spain in the World Cup in the middle of the night and I literally thought I was going mad.”

Spain were always going to lose once they realised that they couldn’t pass their penalties sideways.

76 min In comes the corner, Dunk leaps over about 73 people, and this time the flag goes up. Assuming you’re not Brighton, you’ve got to laugh.

75 min It’s caning down with rain again, and Murray nods down a high cross for Propper, whose shot is deflected behind.

74 min Two changes for Brighton: Locadia and Izquierdo on, Kayal and Knockaert off.

74 min We see the goal again, and Cooper proper takes Murray around the waist then hauls him down – I hope they’ve been practising that on the training ground – and Duffy can’t get around to cover.

73 min They win a free-kick and March’s ball isn’t bad, but Murray is on his heels.

This is a monstrous, towering, colossal header! The corner goes high to the back post, looking for Pearce and Murray, marking him, is blokced off by Cooper. For a second, time pauses, as everyone knows what can happen, what surely must happen … AND IT HAPPENS, Pearce headbutting high into the net! It’s been coming!

68 min Montoya is late on Ferguson and is booked; fine, but Romeo’s tackle just a few minutes was at least equivalent and probably worse.

67 min Change for Brighton: March replaces Jahanbaksh, who’s been nonsense.

66 min The corner finds Cooper clambering at the back post, but he can’t quite grow his neck long enough.

66 min Millwall are warming up now, and Tunnicliffe slips Gregory in, but Ryan is out sharply, the angle is already narrow, and the attempted clipped finish drifts behind.

64 min Tunnicliffe drifts away from Stephens and lays back for Romeo, who slides a pass into Williams, inside the box, right-hand side, but inching a way from goal. He swivels into a shot nonetheless, but Ryan is there to parry.

63 min Bernardo lanks down the right, crosses, and some 46 minutes later, Romeo cuts him in two. No foul!

62 min This has got “0-0 until a late deflected winner just before the end of extra-time to ruin penalties” written all over it.

59 min Best chance of the game! Ferguson slides a pass inside and behind Montoya and Wallace breaks onto it, opening his body to telegraph his intention, punching a sidefooter into Ryan. Unmarked in the middle, Tunnicliffe is raging.

58 min Kayal dawdles on the ball close to the by-line, secure in the knowledge that Ferguson won’t be able to resist fouling him. And there it is, but the ref sees nothing untoward.

57 min Kayal finds himself some space, takes possession, and drills a low shot that Matin shovels away.

57 min “Hardworking week for these people in the Docklands of London,” reckons Jonathan Pearce; I’d wager fewer than ten, so not even a minyan, have passed their time in that way.

55 min Brighton can feel the unpleasantness building, and Stephens beautifully caresses a pass into touch.

54 min Murray shoves Romeo then Kayal barges Williams and we almost enjoy some afters, but not quite. They shake hands.

53 min It’s sweeping hail now, and the crowd are getting properly involved. The football is less exciting.