FA Cup First Round debuts the Timmy Mallett derby

The Mallett family Saturdays must be utterly, utterly brilliant.

But this coming FA Cup First Round weekend you can throw in divided loyalties – and we’ve had this marked in our diary as a piece ever since Oxford United drew Maidenhead United out of the hat in the draw a fortnight ago.

That’s because the meeting of the two sides on Saturday is officially ‘The Timmy Mallett Derby’.

Famously a fan of the U’s, the 1980s and 90s kids TV presenter fronted the legendary Wacaday – half an hour of daily chaos during the school holidays.

As Hugh Fort wrote on Berkshire Live awhile back: “Instead of boring people in suits arguing with politicians, we had 30 minutes of utter chaos.”

However it’ll be a tough day for Mallett who lives in Cookham, he rather tremendously allowed Maidenhead United to seep into his heart and is now a regular on the terraces at York Road.

When Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney touched down for their first ever live Wrexham experience (away to Maidenhead) we’d certainly argue (and we did) that there was already a bigger star, nay a national treasure in the stands.

Mister Mallett said: “Maidenhead United is tremendous.”

We quite agree.

You can read the quite excellent interview with Timmy here – including an unlikely friendship with Reading legend Dave Kitson.

Timmy Mallett’s book ‘Utterly Brilliant’ is available here.