| Subject: Re: What sort of things are Millwall fans doing this season then? We've never really had a problem with them but i heard about what they did at Palace, that was just uncalled for. |
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Blue Spice
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Date Posted: 09:40:19 12/06/01 Thu
In reply to:
BILLY_NO_MATES
's message, "Re: What sort of things are Millwall fans doing this season then? We've never really had a problem with them but i heard about what they did at Palace, that was just uncalled for." on 23:56:53 12/05/01 Wed
This was reported on anothre site.
Wednesday December 05 2001
By Steve Anglesey
Manchester City supporters were banned from the New Den on Tuesday night - and missed a thrilling 3-2 win over Millwall during which Kevin Keegan was sent from the dug-out. But a few Blues fans made it behind enemy lines… and here is a report from one, taken from City newsletter Tenacity.
IT WAS on the short train journey to South Bermondsey that the bravado started to wear thin.
"I'm not sure about this. Maybe we should have stayed in the pub to watch Juve," said Juan, who’d brought along his 16-year-old son.
"No, it'll be fine," I said. "None of their boys will be out tonight; no-one to fight."
Arriving at the Den and putting on our best London accents, we took our seats about five minutes before kick-off. We breathed a sigh of relief as we looked around and saw a collection of relatively normal people… until the teams ran out.
"Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo," screamed the white twentysomething bloke next to me, jumping up and down and imitating a monkey.
"Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo," screamed his mates around us.
"Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo," screamed what seemed like a hefty minority of the crowd.
Their target? Shaun Goater, who had the misfortune to be closest to the touchline.
"F**k off you northern monkey, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo."
"F**k off you stunted xxx, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo," they screamed at Shaun Wright-Phillips.
"F**k off Xxx," was the welcome for Ali Benarbia the first time he touched the ball.
"F**k off you fat Xxx," was the inevitable insult hurled regularly at Eyal Berkovic.
And on and on it went.
"The xxx's in the box. He's in the box! Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo! Oh f**k he's scored." Goater silenced the racists for a few minutes with a beautifully-taken goal from a Wright-Phillips cross.
Before the match the Bermudan had said: "I am sure we have the experience to handle the situation and come away with the points. That match at Millwall three years ago was the most frightening I have been involved in during my footballing career."
So how he must have enjoyed that one.
The game and the racism continued throughout the first half and Millwall equalised just before the whistle. But by now we'd had enough and we asked if we could move into the Family Stand for the second half. "It's just as bad in there," warned the steward. And she was right.
"Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo," screamed the six-year-old girl in front of us.
"Stop it. You can't do that," her father said.
"Why not?" she asked, "everybody else is doing it. Ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo," and on and on it depressingly went.
City were attacking the goal in front of the deserted 'away end'. Then Darren Huckerby scored. There was absolute silence all around the ground. It was both eerie and terrifying. The players celebrated by standing on the dead ball line and applauding the empty stand.
Ten minutes to go and the racial abuse had levelled out to a desultory booing of all our players. Then suddenly Millwall were back in the game, scoring a penalty after Danny Tiatto handled the ball. Seven minutes to go and although we wanted to win we were beginning to think that a draw might be the safest option. Then a chorus of monkey noises alerted us to the fact that Wright-Phillips was in sight of goal.
”That'll be the draw safe then,” I thought. But the ball hit the back of the net with such force you could hear it above the torrent of racial abuse from all around us.
The three of us had just suppressed our delight when we heard "Yessss... c'mon City" from an executive box directly behind us. Unfortunately so too did everyone around us and within seconds the box was under siege from the Family Enclosure. Thankfully the stewards got there first and stopped 40 or so fans from getting into the box for a free corporate evening out, with bonus fighting.
After what seemed like eight hours, the whistle went for the end of the game and we were able to escape.
After the inevitable 30-minute train delay we got back to the car and the relief was tangible. At last we could speak without fear."
I know that Millwall's racism has been reported to the FA.
 Our lads salute the empty away stand.
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