DENNIS Wise hopes to rekindle his love affair with the FA Cup by delivering a Sky-televised exit to his former club.

The 36-year-old former England midfielder will be a key man for Millwall when they host Saints in a fourth round replay at The New Den tomorrow.

The three-times winner believes the Lions can become the second First Division side in successive seasons - after Rotherham in 2001/02 - to dump Saints out of the competition.

And Wise, whose side will be protecting an 10-match unbeaten league and cup run, has a message for Saints fans - carry on abusing Steve Claridge!

The former Pompey boss briefly silenced St Mary's with a first-half goal before substitute Kevin Davies kept Saints in the cup with a last-gasp leveller.

Wise, released by Saints after spending his apprenticeship at The Dell in the mid-1980s, first won the cup with Wimbledon against Liverpool 15 years ago.

He was in the Chelsea side that beat Middlesbrough in 1997 and skippered the Blues when they beat Aston Villa in the last final at Wembley three years later.

"I was once on Roy Castle's Record Breakers when I was 14 years old, after the Southampton team I was in won the Metropolitan Police Cup, the biggest tournament in the world," Wise recalled.

"I was asked what I wanted to do in football and the most important thing to me was to win the FA Cup. It is something special.

"The good thing about it is that we are underdogs. Everyone expects us to get beaten by Southampton except us.

"We feel we have enough to keep with them, as we showed at St Mary's.

"We have wonderful players like Steven Reid, Paul Ifill and Steve Claridge who can provide that moment of inspiration.

"And if Steve starts getting more abuse from the Southampton fans, that will just get him going even more."

Wise, though, insisted the magic of the world's greatest knockout competition will never fade for him.

"You also need an awful lot of luck," he said. "I have seen so many games where teams have been absolutely slaughtered but still win.

"That is what is so good about it - you never know.

"You need to impose your personality on the game as well - be organised and perform.

"It is always difficult for Premiership sides to play against non-Premiership opposition because the onus is on them - it is up to them to try and beat us.

"That is a nice situation to be in because I am used to having the shoe on the other foot.

"Mentally, you have to be completely focused - you do not want to be the team everyone reads about in the papers and everyone has a little giggle about what has happened."

Wise began his footballing career at Saints but never settled on the south coast because of homesickness.

"It was difficult because I left home when I was 15," he recalled.

"They had some very good players - a lot of them like Alan Shearer and Tim Flowers were younger than me.

"But I wanted to go home. I was fed up. I never felt like I had made it - especially as I got released."

Like Claridge, Wise will always get a hot reception from opposition fans who aim to wind him up.

"I haven't got anything to prove," he said.

"I do not know if this will be my last club. Age is not on my side. But you just have to look at Steve - he still gets the goals and does extremely well. And he is a year older than me.

"He keeps himself fit and his legs are going very well.

"And the abuse certainly seems to do him some good."