Wednesday 26 August 2009

Spanners 'behaved impeccably'

Millwall fans 'behaved impeccably' during last night's crowd trouble at Upton Park according to Spanners manager Paul Jackett: Millwall

It is certainly the case that it was West Ham fans who invaded the pitch to celebrate what was ultimately a 3-1 victory, but various reports (including one from a friend who was not going to the match) indicate that trouble kicked off on the tube beforehand.

It looks as if West Ham are going to take the hit in terms of any punishment being meted out by the FA, but there may well have been some provocation from supporters of the New Cross family club.

Radio 5 is doing its phone in this morning on 'Is football violence back?' They have to fill their air time, of course. What they should be asking is whether it went away at the New Den. To be fair the club has tried to stamp out some of the worst excesses, although according to one eye witness there were racist chants last night.

Many Millwall supporters are normal individuals, but the club does attract a lunatic fringe because of its historic reputation. As the old joke goes, the biggest branch of their supporters club is in Maidstone prison.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

West Ham will be treated leaninetly because of the influenze of SIR TREVOR like all indiscretions before

Terry Thomas said...

Lets face it, in all of the years Millwall's mindless fans have caused trouble, the club has never been punished sufficiently. Therefore West Ham should feel hard done by if they get any sort of punishment.

sm said...

Jackett is a complete ignoramus if he doesn't understand that it takes two sides to have a fight or he is unaware of the comments of local residents who were caught up in the confrontation. If his comments don't bring him or the game into disrepute I don't how such comments ever could - the FA should throw the (metaphorical) book at him, and the Millwall Board should sack him for breach of contract.

Anonymous said...

The problem is that every single club (inc us) has its lunatic element.
We in the Uk need some sort of 'culture change' Will it happen?

Luv Robin said...

Without being an apologist for Millwall there is a perspective here. I once had a discussion about football with a very elderly and very respectable gentleman in which he described a riot he was involved in at Aston Villa in the 1920's when the referee was pelted with brown glass beer bottles, many of them empty, from the terraces. There were riots at football matches in the 1880's. I feel slightly reassured that in this sanitised, PC, all-seater, gender equal, Walt Disneyfied, corporate, family entertainment, Simon Cowell-ised Blairite culture in which we live, football can still inspire a massive punch-up between the south of the Thames docklands and the north of the Thames docklands. The worst thing that can come out of this is a sustained tirade of sactimony from Trevor Brooking.

sm said...

Luv Robin

The worst thing that came out of this was someone being stabbed - to say nothing of the police being attacked in order to stop two sets of yobs fighting and teh disruption to those who lived locally. If you bother to look at the Home Office statistics published recently you will see certain clubs have much more of problem with this than others - perhaps those clubs most affected could go and form their own thugs league - and leave the vast majority to our Walt Disnified, family entertainment world (yes I do bring my children to Charlton's games)

Suze said...

If we in this country need a culture change, then so does a lot of the footballing world. We are by no means the worst anymore, neither are we angels.

I went with my mother a few years ago...but, not that long, to the Christmas markets in Germany...on the Saturday we visited the Cologne ones. Being very large and famous...they're well attended. We had to hide in doorways and shops as the Cologne fans ran through the narrow lanes of their own city area, anyone who had been in their way, would've been trampled to death. We're not talking a few hundred men and boys, we are talking a couple of thousand or more. Where were they going? To an organised gathering with away fans.

When in Florence, Italy, I watched as the away fans coaches were escorted through the city...now which set of fans this was to protect, who knows, but there was a heavy police escort.

It doesn't make any of our issues right, but, it is world football's problem, not just the "English disease" of old.

And...it takes two to tango, not just one! Blinkers are a wonderful thing...