With an 11-club career that spans Southend United and Scarborough via Stoke City and Swindon Town, the CV screams “journeyman”. At 35, Tommy Mooney is nearing the journey’s end. If there is relish at the improbable Carling Cup adventure in which he will play for Wycombe Wanderers against Chelsea tonight, there is also regret that he never had the chance to play a full season against top-flight opposition.

What most of Chelsea’s stars take for granted was taken away from Mooney when Watford beat Chelsea 1-0 in the Premiership in September 1999. Marcel Desailly, the former France defender, tackled Mooney by the corner flag. The striker was out for 7½ months with a displaced kneecap.

“By the time I came back, Watford were already down,” Mooney said. “I wasn’t happy about the challenge: if you suggested that it showed disregard for a fellow professional’s well-being, that covers it quite well. Desailly was a World Cup winner, but he never apologised. That challenge destroyed what should have been the best year of my career.

“I enjoy watching Chelsea, they have fantastic players from back to front, but I still don’t care much for Desailly. I wouldn’t stand at the bar and have a shandy with him. Whenever he came on TV as a pundit at the World Cup last summer, I wanted to put my boot through the screen — although I would rather deliver it in person.”

Mooney, who has scored ten goals this season, did play once more in the Premiership, for Birmingham City in 2002, but the memory of that challenge still rankles. “It’s more than seven years ago now and I wish the disappointment would go away, but it has always been there, gnawing away at me. This cup run has been the best thing that’s happened since.”

Mooney’s son, Kelsey, is a Chelsea fan. Steve Brown’s son, Maxwell, is also a Chelsea supporter — “because they get the most coverage”, his dad said. Aged 15 months, in 2001, Maxwell was briefly the most famous toddler in the country. Roy Essandoh scored a late winner as Wycombe knocked Leicester City out of the FA Cup in the quarter-finals with a striker signed after a Teletext appeal while their manager, Lawrie Sanchez, watched on television after being sent from the dug-out.

In ecstasy, Brown lifted his shirt to reveal a vest. Written in marker pen was “Maxwell”, the midfield player’s way of showing his love for his son, who is now a healthy seven-year-old but had needed about twenty operations because of a serious oesophagus defect.

Steve Bennett, the referee, showed Brown a yellow card for overcelebrating. As he had already been booked, Brown was sent off and left the pitch in tears, feeling he had let his son down. A four-match ban followed because of previous offences. Brown was deluged by sympathetic media attention.

“There was a campaign and my whole life changed,” Brown said. “I remember getting home from Leicester the following day and the press were outside my mother’s house. It was scary because I didn’t want the publicity. I wanted the lads to have the publicity because winning the game was more important than me getting sent off.”

Brown walked proudly out for the semi-final carrying his child, but Wycombe lost to Liverpool. Signed by Martin O’Neill 13 years ago, he is now retired and is assistant manager to Paul Lambert. “I crossed paths with Steve Bennett a couple of times later in games before I retired,” Brown said. “I never said anything because he knew as well as I knew. I couldn’t change it. There was no malice. It wasn’t me who was baying for his head; it was the public, because it was a cold-hearted thing to do.” As with Mooney, this is a tie to awaken sorrow as well as excitement: Bennett is the referee for tonight’s semi-final first leg.

Wycombe Wanderers (probable; 4-4-2): R Batista — R Martin, S O’Halloran or W Antwi, M Williamson, C Palmer — K Betsy, M Bloomfield, S Oakes, T Doherty — J Easter, T Mooney.

Chelsea (probable; 4-3-3): Hilário — Gérémi, P Ferreira, M Essien, A Cole — M Ballack, F Lampard, W Bridge — S Wright-Phillips, A Shevchenko, S Kalou.

Referee: S Bennett.

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