Expert Opinion

millwall-2-dec
02Dec

Millwall fans face undignified hurdles to attend Leeds game

by Mike Calvin avatar

Want to be treated with the contempt reserved for second-class citizens? Simple. Support Millwall, and subject yourself to untold indignities, if you wish to watch them play Leeds United at Elland Road on Saturday.

Coaches will leave the Den at 5:30am, and reconvene for breakfast after 9:45am at Woolley Edge services on the M1. There, and only there, will Millwall fans be permitted to exchange a pre-paid voucher for a £34 match ticket, one of the most expensive in the Championship. Leeds owner Ken Bates has not softened noticeably since his Chelsea days, when he advocated electrified fences at football grounds.

Travelling supporters will go in convoy to the ground, and be expected to hang around for at least 45 minutes after the final whistle. The last time I attended this fixture, police asked Millwall manager Kenny Jackett to stage a special warm-down session, to keep the fans occupied. Several players staged an impromptu karaoke session on the pitch.

I’ll declare an interest here, before the professional Yorkshiremen get busy.

I spent a season behind the scenes at Millwall for my book, Family. It’s a proper football club, gloriously old-fashioned, if burdened by history. Allegiance is passed down the generations, from father to son, mother to daughter. Fans don’t suffer fools, and would no more leave early, to catch the tube, than admit that they quite like Leeds United.

They loathe them. The clubs are too similar for it to be any other way. Supporting Millwall, or Leeds, is an article of faith. Although Millwall created the theme tune No One Likes Us, it could just as easily apply to their Yorkshire rivals, who remain acutely sensitive to the Dirty Leeds jibes. That’s something to be cherished, in an age in which Premier League football has been neutered by the marketing men.

I would bet my house on fans joining together before kick off, to pay respect to Leeds legend Gary Speed. Millwall supporters observed an impeccable minute’s silence before Tuesday’s home game against Doncaster, out of respect to Jackett, a close friend of the late Wales manager.

Millwall and Leeds are proper clubs, with proper fans, who will hate me for trying to be even-handed. They may have the odd simpleton, prepared to throw a bottle or strike a thuggish pose, but football can’t afford to be without them.

They care, you see.

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Follow Mike Calvin on Twitter @CalvinBook

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  • Simonfire1

    Good post – and I know Bates has charged you top dollar but you only get ripped off once a year where we get ripped off every other week !!!

  • chris from wakey

    I’m a Leeds United season ticket holder. Millwall and Leeds have the same problems with a small minority of fans who, unfortunately, spoil games that would just have (and should have) noisy rivalry at each others grounds. I suspect that most of the arrangements are at the behest of the local Police and not the clubs themselves. As a (dedicated) Leeds fan I am looking forward to this fixture and all the fans banter that goes with it.

  • Smitch2765

    As you said at the beginning, Bates is the man who “advocated electrified fences at football ground”.
    It’s not just Millwall fans. Bates treats all fans with the contempt that most DON’T deserve!
    Nevertheless, I have been to Millwall (both the old ground and the new) and it is one of the most hostile environments I’ve experienced.

  • Cav

    Dirty Leeds, love it,  i would’nt wanted to be called anything eles.

         We are Dirty Leeds…

  • Gareth Mulvenna

    Good post Mike, but as a Forest fan I find it incredibly annoying to be detained at the Den for over half an hour after the final whistle each time I visit there as an away fan. It’s swings and roundabouts.

  • Headingley whites

    Starting to like Millwall now especially at Christmas. You are the pantomime villains of football.

  • http://twitter.com/DewiPowell Dewi Powell

    I love how the writer tries to make out Millwall fans are nice people. He must have forgot their disgusting Istanbul chants last season, with one fan even wearing a Galatasaray shirt. Scum.

  • http://twitter.com/SjMaskell Sj Maskell

    The ‘bubbling’ of fans is not just applied Millwall. Fixtures between Southampton v Pompey are subject to the same arrangements this season. Police justify the restricting of peaceful fans on the basis of trouble caused by the few in the past. Clubs go along with the arrangements, but one wonders how much pressure plod put on for the arrangements. 

    Senior Officers have told me the arrangement is ‘the best use of limited resources available.’ That’s alright then is it? Restrict the many because of the few? Like teacher keeping the whole class in because of one naughty child – one who is probably not even there.

    By the way, Leeds charged Pompey fans £36 to sit in their restricted view stand this season. Is it £2 off if you are bubbled then? Our experience was bad enough – over-zealous stewarding and in-yer-face police filming. Good luck Millwall. I suggest you have your camera-phones at the ready.

    Just don’t let it spoil the tribute to Gary Speed.

  • RC (Leeds Utd fan)

    Very good article. In response to Dewi Powell referring to the wearing of a Galatasaray shirt. Is it not the Leeds fans who have chanted songs about the Munich disaster for decades? Do not tar an entire club  and there fans for the behaviour of a few mindless neanderthals.

  • Percy

    Another good post by Mike as always, What a shame what the Yourkshire Old Bill have done to this fixture.Less than 200 tickets sold for this and I certainly wont be returning to Leeds until these restrictions are removed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Az-Lufc-Herring/1621894969 Az Lufc Herring

    millwall the true scum filth of football and a stain on the underpants of humanity

  • Patrick

    I know others have said it, but Millwall have to suffer Ken Bates’ prices just once a season, we have it 23 times. I hate Millwall, but I prefer them to Ken Bates

  • Ls10

    no need for that fella-whats this bloke done? doubt he was one of the idiots wearing the turkscum shirts. LS10 miggywhite

  • Clarkey_david

    Do not compare Leeds United with Millwall, are fans and club are so much better than yours. Your fans get treated like that because they still behave like animals and electric fences should be a minimum.

  • Robv

    You think it’s any different for Leeds fans at your place? Only we don’t bring 200 supporters!

  • RIP Speed

    Fair article and hope Speeds passing is marked appropriately today by both sets of fans.

    Come on Leeds

  • WAFLLUFC

    Tell your fans to stop acting like animals and they will be treated with respect. SIMPLES.

  • Anonymous

    It’s not ideal, but Leeds fans had to get their tickets at a service station the last time we cam down there. Plus missed the first 20 minutes of the game because police made us wait for no good reason.

  • Sympathetic Leeds Fan

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