Millwall F.C.

Millwall

Full name	Millwall Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Lions, previously The Dockers
Founded	1885
Ground	The New Den (Capacity: 20,146)
Chairman	John Berylson
Manager	Kenny Jackett
League	League One
2008–09	League One, 5th
Home colours Away colours

Millwall Football Club (pronounced /ˈmɪlwɔːl/) (LSE: MWH) is an English professional football team based in Bermondsey in the London Borough of Lewisham, South East London. They currently play in Football League One. 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. Their ground is called The New Den and is near South Bermondsey Rail station.

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.^[1] Their original, but now unused, nickname "The Dockers" arose from the job of many 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, specifically to allow the dockers and Deal porters to finish their morning shift and arrive at the game on time.^[2] 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.

Despite the club's best efforts over many years to reverse the slur, it has an enduring reputation for having some of the most violent supporters in English football.^[3][4]

History

Millwall "Rovers" were founded by the workers of a gentlemen's club in Millwall in the East End of London on the Isle of Dogs in 1885. J.T. Morton was first founded in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1849 to supply sailing ships with food. They opened their first English cannery and food processing plant on the Isle of Dogs at the Millwall dock in 1870, and attracted a workforce from across the whole of the country, including the East Coast of Scotland who were predominantly Dundee Dockers.

The club secretary was seventeen year old Jasper Sexton, the son of the landlord of The Islander Pub in Tooke Street where Millwall held their meetings. The first chairman of the club was Irish international footballer and local GP Doctor William Murray-Leslie, who surprisingly never played for the club.

Millwall Rovers' first fixture was in 1885 against Fillebrook, who played in Leytonstone. The newly formed team was well beaten 5–0. Learning from this early defeat, they were unbeaten in their next 12 games before they lost to the top East London side Old St Pauls. In their first season, they were only beaten three times. In November 1886, the East End Football Association was formed, and along with it came a Senior Cup Competition. Millwall made it to the final against London Caledonians. The game was played at the Leyton Cricket Ground. The match finished 2–2 and the teams shared the cup for six months each. During this season, Millwall played two games on the same day, both at home. The first was a 0–0 draw against Dreadnought in the morning; the second, a 4–1 win against Westminster Swifts in the afternoon.

Despite an 8–1 defeat in the FA Cup, Millwall went on to win the East London Senior Cup at the first attempt. They went on to win it for the following two years and the trophy became their property.

Millwall supporters

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (August 2009)

Millwall are, for their comparative size and status, a well supported club. However, they have, unfortunately, been associated with a long and notorious history of football hooliganism. Their Firm, known from the 1970s as the Bushwackers [sic] were one of the most notorious of all football hooligan gangs. However, the Metropolitan police, especially in the local Lewisham borough, are generally 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 wilful media exaggeration has led to a siege mentality among the decent, law abiding fans, who are a constant easy target for media. 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.^[5][6][7]

A former Chairman of the club, Reg Burr, once commented; "Millwall are a convenient coat peg for football to hang its social ills on."^[8]

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.^[9]

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".^[10]

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.

There were no reports of problems with the Millwall supporters at the club's most high-profile match in recent years, the 2004 FA Cup Final in Cardiff. In January 2009, 500 Millwall fans identified as "high risk" gained access to an FA Cup tie against Hull City A.F.C., at Hull's home ground, the KC Stadium, resulting in seats, coins and plastic bottles being thrown at the Hull supporters, then Millwall got them outside the ground and turned them over. Around 50 seats were pulled out, and Hull planned to bill Millwall for the damages.^[11] On 25 August 2009, clashes between Millwall and West Ham fans outside Upton Park resulted in an innocent Millwall fan's stabbing. The game saw West Ham supporters invade the pitch thrice, forcing the game to be temporarily suspended on the second occasion. West Ham supporters had earlier clashed with Millwall supporters and riot police, and Scotland Yard believed the violence, because of its large scale, was organized beforehand.^[12][13] Both sets of fans were reported for racially abusing players. Millwall F.C. and West Ham United spokepersons swiftly denounced this. Obsevers feel the incident would adversely affect Englands's bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Current squad

As of 9 September 2009.

No. Position Player 1 GK David Forde 2 DF Alan Dunne 3 DF Andrew Frampton 4 MF Adam Bolder 5 DF Paul Robinson 5.5 MF Georgia Abbott 6 DF Zak Whitbread 7 MF Danny Schofield 8 FW Gary Alexander 9 FW Neil Harris 10 FW Lewis Grabban 11 MF Dave Martin 12 MF Chris Hackett 13 GK John Sullivan 14 DF Danny Senda 15 DF Tony Craig 16 DF Scott Barron

No. Position Player 17 MF James Henry (On loan from Reading) 18 DF Darren Ward (On loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers) 19 FW Ashley Grimes 20 FW Steve Morison 21 DF Jack Smith 22 MF Ali Fuseini 23 FW Jason Price 24 MF Marc Laird 26 MF Nadjim Abdou 27 DF Pat O'Connor 30 DF Marcus Bignot 31 FW Kiernan Hughes-Mason 32 DF Omar Beckles 34 FW John Marquis 36 DF Danny Fitzsimons

Notable former players

Honours

• Football League Second Division (second tier)
  • Champions: 1987-88
• Football League Third Division (third tier)
  • Champions: 1927-28, 1937-38 (then Division Three South), 2000-01 (by then known as the Second Division)
• Football League Fourth Division (fourth tier)
  • Champions: 1961-62
• UEFA Cup
  • Best performance: Round 1 (2004-05)
• FA Cup
  • Runners-up: 2004.
  • Semi Finalists: 1900, 1903, 1937.
• Football League Cup
  • Best performance: Quarter-finals (1973-74, 1976-77, 1994-95)
• Football League Group Cup
  • Winners: 1982-83
• Full Members Cup
  • Best performance: Quarter-finals (1988-89)
• Associate Members Cup
  • Runners-up: 1999
• War Cup South
  • Runners-up: 1945.
• FA Youth Cup
  • Winners: 1979, 1991.
  • Runners-up: 1994.
• Southern League
  • Champions: 1895, 1896.
  • Runners-up: 1897.
• Western League
  • Champions: 1908, 1909.
• United League
  • Champions: 1897, 1899.
• London League
  • Champions: 1904.
• East London Senior Cup
  • Winners: 1887, 1888, 1889.
• East London FA Cup
  • Joint Winners: 1886.

Notes

References

• Lions of the South, James Murray, Millwall Football Club. Indispensible Publicatations and Millwall F.C. 1988. ISBN 1871220017

• Millwall 1910 - 1993. Goodbye to The Den. Deano Standing and Rob Bowden. 1993. Sports and Leisure Print Limited Mitcham, Surrey

• The Millwall History Files [1]

External links

• South London Press: In-depth coverage
• Millwall F.C. on BBC Sport: Club News – Recent results – Upcoming fixtures – Club stats

• Official Site
• Millwall Online
• IndependentMillwall
• The Millwall History Files
• Millwall Supporters Club

Fan Sites:

• [http://www.svenskafans.com/england/millwall/ Swedish Fansite "Enough Said"
• Dutch Fans Site
• Polish Lions Site
• Belgian Fans Site