Millwall Football Club

Millwall Football Club is an English professional football team based at The Den, in Bermondsey, South East London. They currently play in Football League One. Despite their best efforts of recent years, the club has an enduring reputation for having some

Millwall Football Club is an English professional football team based at The Den, in Bermondsey, South East London. They currently play in Football League One. Despite their best efforts of recent years, the club has an enduring reputation for having some of the rowdiest supporters in English football.

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The team nickname is The Lions, previously, The Dockers. They changed the nickname after being referred to as "Lions" for their acts of giant killing in their FA Cup run of 1900, when they reached the semi final. They adopted a lion emblem, and the motto: We Fear No Foe Where E'er We Go. The emblem, however, was not added to their shirts until 1936. They also reached the semi final in 1903, and 1937, while they went one better and reached the final in 2004, losing to Manchester United. Their 1937 appearance was notable as they became the first team in the old third division to reach the last four, knocking out three First Division sides on the way, including Derby County who were defeated in front of Millwall's official record crowd of 48,762, with hundreds more locked out. Their original now defunct nickname, "The Dockers", emanated from the occupation of the club's supporters. Millwall were the only club up to the early 1960s allowed to kick-off home games at 3.15pm, instead of 3pm, to allow the dockers and Deal porters to finish the morning shift and arrive on time. In recent years the club has started to once again recognise its unique link with London's docks by introducing 'Docker Days', and archiving the club's dock roots in the Millwall FC Museum.Their traditional strip consists of blue shirts, white shorts and blue socks. Their current strip is blue shirts, white shorts with blue trim and blue socks. Rent a flat, house or apartment near Millwall FC with Black Katz.

The Den

Their most famous ground was The Den at New Cross, SE14, which they moved to in 1910. They had previously occupied no fewer than four separate grounds on the Isle Of Dogs in the 25 years since their formation as a football club. Tom Thorne, the director in charge, had sought the help of architect Archibald Leitch and builders Humphries of Knightsbridge. The estimated cost of The Den was £10,000. The first match was on Saturday 22 October 1910 against the reigning Southern League Champions Brighton & Hove Albion, who spoiled the celebrations by winning 0–1. The price of the official Match Programme was one penny. Unfortunately, the opening ceremony also suffered a slight hitch when it was discovered that Lord Kinnaird, had inadvertently gone to the Canterbury (Ilderton) Road end. He had to be unceremoniously hauled, pushed, and pulled over the wall into the ground. After rushing to the other end (Cold Blow Lane) the President of the FA performed a brief opening ritual and led the players onto the pitch. Before kick off a brass lion, inscribed (in Gaelic) "We Will Never Turn Our Backs To The Enemy", was presented to the club. However the official Club Motto was already established. The first and second editions of the club handbook (published 1908-09 and 1909-1910) bore the slogan: "We Fear No Foe, Where E're We Go". It was here that the famous Millwall Roar was born. During this era, it was considered "good form" for home fans to show their appreciation of good football displayed by the opposition. The Millwall fans however, would quite literally "roar" for their team only, from start to finish. This strongly partisan support was soon to be regarded by the team as "a goal start."

The Den became one of the most feared grounds in the country. No team liked to play there, because the crowd and the place itself created such an intimidating atmosphere. Many supporters from the East End of London continued to follow The Lions in the early years after their move south of the River Thames by walking through the Greenwich foot tunnel to join the supporters drawn mainly from the Surrey Docks. The Lions fans were tough, uncompromising, quick to speak their mind and offer advice to the team and officials. They came from a background of poverty, hard work and danger where toughness was necessary for survival. Anyone visiting The Den thinking that southerners were soft, soon realised they were in the wrong part of London.

The Den also hosted a full England international match against Wales on March 13 1911. England won the game 3–0.

The Football League

Millwall's first Football League match at The Den was on August 28, 1920. They beat Bristol Rovers 2–0. This victory over Rovers was the Lions' seventh successive win against them since moving to The Den. The game was played in the Football League Division 3 South of which Millwall were founder members.

They became known as a hard-fighting Cup team and competed in various memorable matches, notably defeating three-time league winners (and reigning champions) Huddersfield Town 3–1 in the third round of the FA Cup in 1927. Matches against Derby County, Sunderland and others that saw packed crowds of forty-eight thousand plus in the 1930s and 1940s. However, it can be argued that the biggest cup upset came in the fourth round of the FA Cup on 26 January 1957, when Millwall beat the then mighty Newcastle 2–1, watched by a crowd of 45,646, at a time when The Lions were fighting for Third Division survival. Millwall were the tenth best supported team in England in the pre-war years, despite being a Third, then Second Division side. Many thought they would go on to become one of England's best clubs, that is until the Second World War cruelly robbed them of their chance. Millwall at this stage, had dropped the title of "Athletic", and were playing as they do today, under the name of "Millwall F.C."

Promotion

Mark McGhee was named as Millwall's new manager in September 2000, and eight months later the club won promotion as Division Two champions after five years in the lower tier of the league. Winning the first match of the season 4–0 at home to Norwich City set the team up well for a good season in which Millwall qualified for the Division One playoffs, but lost to eventual winners Birmingham City 0–1 in the semi finals. This meant that they missed out on a second successive promotion, which would have given them a place in the Premiership. Millwall missed out on a playoff place in 2002-03 and McGhee was sacked soon after the start of the 2003-04 season.

FA Cup final

In 2003 Dennis Wise, ex-Chelsea and England player, became caretaker, and subsequently permanent player-manager, of the club. In his first season in charge Wise led the club to the first FA Cup final in their history (excluding the 1945 War Cup Final). When Millwall took to the field at the Millennium Stadium they were only the second team from outside the top flight to play in the final since 1982, and were the first team from outside the Premiership to reach the final since its foundation in 1992. They were also missing no less than sixteen players from their squad due to suspension or injury. They played the Cup final on May 22, 2004, losing 3–0 to Manchester United. As Manchester United had already qualified for the Champions League, Millwall were assured of playing in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup. Millwall midfielder Curtis Weston, substituted for Wise with one minute of normal time remaining, became the youngest Cup Final player in history at 17 years 119 days, beating the 125 year old record of James F. M. Prinsep. Dennis Wise also insisted that the injured Tony Warner and Kevin Muscat be presented with medals.

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Foray into Europe

In the 2004/05 UEFA Cup, Millwall lost 4–2 on aggregate in the first round proper, to Hungarian Champions Ferencváros, with Wise scoring both Millwall goals.

Millwall put up a brave fight in both games, but the Hungarian champions were too strong. Surprisingly, whilst Millwall were seeded, Ferencvaros were not. Millwall could have had an easier draw, against Chechnyan minnows Terek Grozny. If Millwall had beaten them, then they would have made it into the group stage of the competition, where they would have faced some of Europe's elite, including teams such as Lazio and Schalke.

Millwall supporters

Millwall are indeed a well supported club for their size and status. They have, however, had a long and notorious history of football hooliganism. Their Firm, known as the Bushwackers [sic] were one of the most notorious of all hooligan gangs. However, the police, especially in the local Lewisham borough, are supportive of the club and recognise that any problems now emanate from a very small minority. Chief Superintendent Archie Torrance of Lewisham Police has stated, "Millwall have our full support." He continues to work hard with the club to keep the ground the safe place that it now is. Informed media commentators including Danny Baker, Paul Casella the editor of the leading Millwall fan magazine The Lion Roars, Danny Kelly and Steve Claridge also believe that Millwall's hooligan problems are to a certain extent greatly exaggerated, and that such wilful exaggeration has led to a siege mentality among the decent, law abiding fans, who are a constant easy target for both press and media alike. Examples of this include: archive footage of their hooligan element's past bad behaviour being shown, when disorder has occurred at other grounds, not involving them. During a game between Millwall and Huddersfield Town, The Observer reported that a Huddersfield Town fan had thrown a coin at a linesman, and that some Millwall fans had intervened, and handed the culprit over to police. The News of the World, however, bore the headline: "Millwall Thugs Deck Linesman With Concrete". These, and many other similar incidents, gave rise to the Millwall fans' famous song; No One Likes Us We Don't Care being sung in defiant defence of themselves, and their team.

A former Chairman of the club, Reg Burr, once commented; "Millwall are a convenient coat peg for football to hang its social ills on."

Having said this, hooligans attaching themselves to Millwall were involved in a riot away from the ground, after a play off game against Birmingham City in May 2002, which was described by the BBC as one of the worst cases of civil disorder seen in Great Britain in the recent past. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said that 47 policemen and 24 police horses were injured, and the Metropolitan Police considered suing Millwall after the events.

The then Chairman, Theo Paphitis, stated that Millwall Football Club could not be blamed for the actions of a mindless minority who attach themselves to the club. He then went on to introduce a Membership Scheme, whereby only fans who would be prepared to join and carry membership cards, would be allowed into The New Den. Scotland Yard withdrew its threat to sue stating: "In light of the efforts made and a donation to a charity helping injured police officers, the Metropolitan Police Service has decided not to pursue legal action against Millwall F.C. in relation to the disorder".

Legal experts believed it would have been difficult to hold a football club responsible for something that occurred away from its ground and involved people who did not attend the match. The scheme introduced by Paphitis still applies, but for away games only. Many Millwall fans blame Paphitis' scheme for diminishing Millwall's support at away games.

Their behaviour at the 2004 FA Cup Final was exemplary, with the Cardiff police reporting no arrests of any of the Millwall Supporters.

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