While his teammate Scott Wagstaff sits in the home dressing room at Kingsmeadow getting his bushy ginger beard dyed bright blue and yellow, the AFC Wimbledon midfielder Anthony Wordsworth is in the President’s Lounge telling reporters about his lucky stones. The original FA Cup-winning Crazy Gang may have been uprooted and moved to Milton Keynes many moons ago, but at the fan-owned phoenix club which replaced it there is still an apparent undercurrent of madness.

Quiet and unassuming, Wordsworth is anything but deranged, although at one point he teetered on the brink. As a Southend player, he suffered the trauma of losing his beloved older brother, Steven, to a heart attack, a bereavement that led to a slump in form and eventually left him without a club. Picked up by Wimbledon, he is looking forward to an FA Cup fifth-round tie against Millwall on Saturday following his side’s demolition of West Ham.

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Unable to cope with or talk about his grief following his brother’s death, Wordsworth found himself at his wits’ end and took the advice of a friend who suggested he see a crystal healer. “I thought I would give it a go,” he says. “It could be coincidence, it could be a load of rubbish, but if I have got them on me, it might be a subconscious thing, but I just feel a lot better.”

Asked to produce his crystals for inspection, a sheepish Wordsworth explains that he accidentally left them at home. “There are all different types,” he reveals. “Different colours for different things. The ones I use are for positive energy and to try and help my mind a little bit. You charge them by the moon and the sun and you bury them in soil. It’s a bit deep.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest AFC Wimbledon fans celebrate in the stands during the FA Cup fourth-round match at Kingsmeadow. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/PA

Surveying the thicket of quizzically raised eyebrows before him, he laughs. “If I saw somebody else do it a few years ago, I’d be the first one to hammer them,” he admits. “Now the boys are at me to get them out when they’re cheering on horses. ‘Get your stones out!’ I’m like: ‘That’s not what they’re for; they’re not going to help you win a bet.’ I bring them out on the pitch before games and the lads have been putting them in the goalmouth hoping they’ll help us score more goals but obviously that hasn’t been working.”

Wimbledon’s impressive victory over West Ham belied their league position, anchored to the bottom of the third tier. Wagstaff, having promised to dye his beard half-and-half style in the club’s colours if they won the fourth-round tie, promptly scored two of the goals against the Premier League side that sealed his fate. As Wordsworth talks of his interest in pseudoscientific alternative medicine, the final touches are put to Wagstaff’s whiskers before a big reveal that attracts no end of media attention.

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“I’m a bit surprised I followed it through,” says Wagstaff, looking as if he has just stepped out of World of Warcraft. “It’s all good fun and good publicity for the football club. Now we need to make sure that we look forward to the game on Saturday, which is the most important thing.”

Although Wimbledon and Millwall would concede theirs was a draw neither particularly wanted, one club is guaranteed to advance and win a prize pot of at least £360,000, on top of the TV revenue and gate share an appearance in the quarter-finals will bring. For two cash-strapped teams struggling in their respective divisions, it would be a welcome windfall.

“Fifth round of the FA Cup, my job’s not to motivate the players,” says Wally Downes, who played in all four divisions for the original Crazy Gang and replaced Neal Ardley as manager of Wimbledon in December. “If they’re not motivated by the fact they’re only two games from Wembley and three away from the final … Look, they’re very motivated, as will be the Millwall players. It’s a south London derby and I think we all know what sort of game it’s going to be. It’s going to be ‘robust’ and if a game of football accidentally breaks out somewhere then that’ll be wonderful for the crowd.”

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Completely oblivious to the fact that as he speaks, one of his players is having his facial hair dyed, while another has just been waxing lyrical on the benefits of crystal-induced positive energy, Downes looks baffled upon being asked for his thoughts on either matter. When eventually, all is explained, he shakes his head with incredulity and his eyes roll towards the heavens. “So we’ve got the beard and the lucky stones, have we?” he asks. “That’s terrific, we won’t have to worry about working on any set pieces or formations.”