Newsletter #437

We have loads of match reports from Millwall, some more football orientated than others! Indeed, it seems our South London friends are still stuck in a time warp, and it has to be asked, how long the powers that be will continue to tolerate them. However, as far as footie goes, we did get a point, once again by scoring at the death; it’s almost becoming a habit!

Steve Maclean has sent in an archive match report from 1979, and is encouraging others to do the same. I’d certainly like to support Steve, as I think many people will find them intrinsically interesting, especially if contrasted to today’s scene, as suggested by Steve.

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’ I

MILLWALL vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Tuesday 29th September 1998

My first game since the Valley early last season, after which I was convinced I was a jinx on the team whenever they played in London. Staying away from QPR and Fulham didn’t seem to have helped (and watching the agony on Murdoch TV made it even worse) so I decided to risk it.

Millwall had helpfully allocated tickets to away fans by blocks, but not given them specific seat numbers – so at twenty to eight every stairway was blocked with anxious Blues gazing about for any space to settle in with not a steward in sight. Those who missed the first five minutes need not have worried as the ball was headed aimlessly backwards and forwards. Once City got the ball on the ground they began to pump it beyond the defence for the three forwards to run on to. Surprisingly, this immediately created two good chances. First Greenacre ran clear of the defence but with the ball to his left and the goal to the right decided to hit it right-footed with the inevitable result. Then a weak back-header let in Goater, who beat the aged Spink to the ball. His shot hit the unfortunate Nigel smack in the goolies, resulting in a lengthy stoppage.

City then tried to play the ball to feet but every time a player held it up he was clattered from behind. The referee at first dealt with this quite well, blowing up every time and soon booking their No. 11, but after a while he began to lose control, missing several blatant kicks, pushes and even fairly obvious hand-balls. City began to realise that with no protection from the ref they would have to put it about themselves – and Millwall, though happy to dish it out, clearly didn’t like getting it back. The second-half bust-up was only a matter of time.

Nothing much happened for the rest of the half – City had most of the play but couldn’t create anything much (though Wiekens and Fenton both frightened the Millwall defence by running straight down the middle at them). Millwall’s only tactic was to boot the ball to baldy (their No. 10, Shaw) who would control it with a neat first touch and then hit it into the crowd, apparently trying to give every City fan a touch of the ball (those near the corner flags getting particularly good service). Weaver had very little to do apart from take goal kicks – he got down well to turn away one shot that was going wide anyway, and produced a decent punch when Fenton had for once headed the ball straight up instead of away.

City kicked off the second half with two players poised on the left-hand touch-line for an instant charge. A cunning decoy – the ball went to the right where Greenacre was immediately caught in possession. Millwall took the ball to edge of the box, but the cross seemed no cause for concern until Vaughan (I think) flicked a foot at it as it passed him, teeing it up gently for Harris to volley past the helpless Weaver from about ten yards. Forty-five seconds, thanks a lot. Allsopp soon replaced Greenacre and immediately looked lively, bustling past defenders and getting in a couple of reasonable shots. But the nasty tackles were still flying in, now from both sides. When Vaughan caught Shaw from behind (though I think he may well have played the ball at the same time) it triggered a huge brawl with both teams racing to get involved. As it was on the touchline, several Millwall fans showed signs of wanting to join in until forced back by the stewards and police. Eventually Vaughan and Shaw were sent off (a reasonable deal from City’s point of view as Vaughan was playing poorly and Shaw was their most dangerous player). Tiatto came on for Whitley and was immediately kicked in the head by Jimmy Carter, who should have been booked earlier for two heavy charges on Edghill. So this time it was only a yellow card.

City continued to press for the equaliser, but Millwall conjured a couple of dangerous breakaways. From one of these Wiekens could only get a toe-poke back towards Weaver who remained rooted to the spot. A Millwall forward took the ball round him and tapped it home, leading to several home fans dancing on the pitch. It took a while for everybody to realise that the game had been stopped some time back for a City free kick in Millwall’s half.

Bradbury produced a great low cross which Horlock just failed to reach and Edghill must have thought he’d at last scored for City with a thundering drive towards the top corner which Spink just managed to claw away. Amazingly, the board for added time read only four minutes; it had taken at least that to sort out the red cards, let alone the various injuries and a delay of a couple of minutes when the crowd refused to give the ball back.

On ninety-two minutes Horlock swung in yet another corner; a header was blocked and the follow-up deflected to Bradbury on the corner of the six-yard box with his back to goal. He controlled, turned and hit a sweet low shot into the far corner to the rapturous delight of the fans behind the goal. Millwall hurled themselves forward, but immediately Bradbury broke clear again, held off the defenders and shot inches wide of the near post, with Allsopp screaming for the ball to be squared.

2-1 might have flattered us – and in view of what happened after the match we might never have got home at all. The away fans were kept in the ground for nearly an hour while Millwall “supporters” engaged in battle with riot-shielded police. Amazingly, the City fans remained good-humoured and patient (the injury-time equaliser no doubt helping the mood). Dennis Tueart came to give encouraging messages through a megaphone, but couldn’t make himself heard above the various witticisms (“have you brought the loaves and fishes, Dennis?”); and eventually we were given an escort through streets littered with bricks and broken glass to South Bermondsey station. We got back to Kingston at 11.30 – God knows when everybody else made it to Manchester.

Some good points: the team spirit seems a lot better and we don’t let the heads drop when we go behind. The team seemed to expect the equaliser even though (or because?) it came so late. We looked by far the better team (can’t agree with Svenn’s report); and once the draws are converted into wins should be able to at least make the play-offs.

Bad points: some shocking lack of basic skills. Three good passes would be followed by a fourth not just wayward but grotesquely inept. Nobody except Horlock (and perhaps Bradbury) is capable of delivering a decent cross – oh for a Beagrie or even, dare I say, a Summerbee.

Players:

Weaver 6 (I’d give him 7 if I thought he’d heard the whistle for the disallowed goal).
Fenton 9 Excellent – calm, confident, almost arrogant. Like a young Mike Doyle.
Wiekens 8 Very impressive, and can bring the ball out of defence. Couple of dodgy moments in the last ten minutes could have caused us problems though.
Vaughan 5 Can’t pass or control a ball to save his life, but tries hard and knows what he should be doing even if he can’t.
Whitley (Jim) 5 Not a wing-back – had several chances to put in a telling first-time cross but always chose to wait and take on a defender instead.
Edghill 6 Still error-prone but nothing disastrous. Nearly scored a great goal, so I’ll give him an extra point.
Horlock 5 Two in midfield is not enough if Horlock is one of them. Doesn’t get involved enough, and now seems to be afraid to shoot as well.
Pollock 6 Slightly more effective than Horlock, but surprisingly low-profile in such a highly charged match. Possibly anxious to avoid yet another suspension.
Greenacre 5 Tries hard, but just not good enough, I’m afraid.
Bradbury 8 Took a while to get into the game but by far our most effective forward when he did. Scored one very good goal, nearly grabbed a winner and created more opportunities than anybody else. Lay off him – in this division he could be a class act.
Goater 4 This man is not a footballer. Even so, his physical presence will upset defenders and if he keeps scoring goals we have to keep playing him. There’ll be a lot of useless performances like this along the way though.

Subs:
Allsopp 7 If Goater goes two or three games without a goal, give Madge a go. If he doesn’t score it won’t be for want of trying.
Tiatto 7 Once Vaughan is suspended he should be at left-back in a back four. Otherwise looks a better bet than Whitley, Edghill or Horlock as a wing-back.

Sorry to go on at length, but it’s been a long time.

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’ II

MILLWALL vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Tuesday 29th September 1998

I don’t know if I’d have found Millwall’s new ground, if it wasn’t for the detailed directions given by the ‘Football Fan’s Guide‘. In deepest Deptford the ground doesn’t exactly stand out from the countless warehouses even when right next to it. Anyway, the New Den is an excellent stadium. OK, not quite up there with the best of the Premiership grounds, but you can almost forget, for a brief moment that City are in the depths of the Nationwide. As an aside, when this fixture was originally postponed leaving me with a blank Saturday, I went and watched my local team Brighton playing at Gillingham. This has got to be the smallest, run down, inaccessible ground ever. Be ready for a culture shock in April.

Back to Millwall, with City announcing a surprise change to the line-up. Chris Greenacre in for Paul Dickov. Yes, I know Dickov was injured, but Greenacre is the worst forward ever to wear City’s colours. What on earth is he doing anywhere near City’s first team? I thought he was on his way to Macclesfield. Surely Craig Russell or even Neil Heaney has got to be a better bet than Greenacre?

Anyway City lined up as follows:

Bradbury     Goater    Greenacre
            Horlock   Pollock
Edghill                           Whitley
    Vaughan Wiekens Fenton
                 Weaver

Wearing the new dazzling yellow and black shirts (well I like it), City were well in control in the early stages. An excellent long ball/clearance from Wiekens in the 5th minute found Greenacre in the clear. One on one he chose to shoot early and ‘Oh dear’. I told you he was rubbish. Moments later Goater was through with just Nigel Spink to beat, but as usual he hit it straight at the ‘keeper. That was about it for City’s first half chances. Millwall soon had the ‘hit it as high and long as you can’ tactic sussed and started creating their own chances. Nevertheless, City’s defence was looking firm and didn’t look like conceding a goal. Wiekens was making timely interceptions and playing the ball out of defence well. Fenton was absolute class. Edghill, apart from one dodgy minute midway through the half, was marking Jimmy Carter out of the game. Jimmy Carter, now there is a signing that proved Kenny Dalglish never really had a clue about players.

Where City’s game was falling apart was in midfield and up front (Bradbury excepted). Horlock was having a stinker. Every pass found a Millwall shirt. Pollock was no better. Goater didn’t touch the ball apart from the miss, and quite frankly, looked like he didn’t want to. Greenacre was, well Greenacre. Second half, first minute, responding well to Royle’s half-time chat the defence went to sleep, and Neil Harris put Millwall one up. Difficult to tell exactly what happened as it was down the other end, but it looked like the ball was played between Fenton and Wiekens, Wiekens slipped trying to cut the pass out leaving Harris with just Weaver to beat from five yards. No chance. Royle responded by immediately bringing on Allsopp for Greenacre. Within a minute Allsopp hustled the Millwall defence off the ball and forced Nigel Spink to make a good save. Millwall, and in particular their supporters thought they’d scored a second. Somebody in blue rounded Nicky Weaver long after the other 20 players had stopped for an offside. Amazingly, 10,000 Millwall supporters hadn’t spotted this, and when the goal went in they proceeded to invade the pitch as if it was a crucial Cup Final winning goal. I’m sure they still think they’ve won 2-1.

Soon after, an incident involving Tony Vaughan and Phil Shaw led to a mass brawl. Anyone of ten players could have been sent off. As it is, both Vaughan and Shaw were red carded. This was in City’s favour as Shaw was by far their best player, while Vaughan was having his usual average game (hopefully, this will allow Shelia to return to the side in place of Vaughan and not the classy Fenton).

City were beginning to show more urgency as the clock was ticking away. Tiatto came on for Whitley with Edghill swapping to the right. Tiatto immediately conceded possession with his first three touches, but slowly his energetic and positive style was making inroads down the left. Nevertheless, for all their possession City weren’t making any clear chances, Goater in particular was non-existent.

With five minutes to go Edghill, having one of his better games, had a good shot from the edge of the area well saved by Spink. 4 minutes were shown for injury time and with two and a half of them played, the goal finally came. Horlock hit a good corner from the left, Wiekens jumped and missed, a Millwall defender headed across goal, where Bradbury was lurking, and he fired the ball in low and through the ruck of players on the goal line. Yes! One minute later, resurrecting the first half tactic of hitting the ball over the top, Bradbury was put through clear on goal, 2 Millwall defenders were frantically chasing him, Spink came out to narrow the angle, surely City weren’t going to score 2 goals in injury time and win the match? Bradbury shoots … and misses. This is City after all.

Well, we got a point, continued our unbeaten run, and are still handily placed once we start actually winning some matches. The most frustrating aspect of the night, was the poor performance of some of our players. Anyway, here’s my summary:

Weaver: 7 No chance with the goal, looked solid, good catching/kicking, but not really called on to make any crucial saves.
Whitley: 7 Made up a lot of ground on the right flank. Good tackling, fair distribution. Willingness to take players on, though not always succeeding.
Edghill: 7 Marked Jimmy Carter well. Had a poor moment in the first half, when he lost possession in a dangerous area, failed to cut out Carter from getting in a cross, and needlessly gave the ball away when in a good position, all within the space of one minute. Besides that, generally good tackling and passing. Restricted from getting forward by Carter.
Fenton: 9 Pure class. The best City defender since Dave Watson. Won every header and tackle. Good positional sense. Comfortable on the ball. Not sure though about his part in Millwall’s goal.
Wiekens: 7 Looked good early on. Good tackling and distribution. Shame he’s not a few inches taller so he could be more dominant in the air, allowing City to play with two centre backs instead of three. Apart from the slip for Millwall’s goal, he also made a terrible pass in the second half, from which Millwall should have scored a second. Room for improvement.
Vaughan: 6 So so performance. Wins a few tackles, loses a few. Woeful passing, followed by some classy defending. Not missed after the sending off. Surely, going to make way for Murtaz Shelia soon.
Horlock: 3 The worst game I’ve seen from him. Let’s hope it’s just a one-off. His passing was very poor. Always gave it away, often caught in possession, he can only get better. Redeemed himself slightly with the corner from which we scored.
Pollock: 3 I still haven’t forgiven him for the QPR goal. Even so, this was a poor performance from Pollock. Was Royle being serious when he said it’s not to late for him to get into the England side. His passing was atrocious. Most moves broke down when Pollock or Horlock received the ball. Not the inspirational midfield general and captain City need this season. Thank goodness he’s out for the next four matches.
Greenacre: 1 How on earth can somebody with as little talent as Greenacre get anywhere near City’s first team? He has no pace, no skill, can’t head the ball, no positional sense. I do remember him laying the ball off to Bradbury quite nicely in the second half, hence the 1 point, but surely, the worst player to ever play up front for City.
Goater: 0 Until, that is, you come to Goater. What a poor, poor performance. Showed absolutely nothing. How on earth he’s scored 7 goals this season I just don’t know. Recommended to us by Ferguson wasn’t he? That just about sums him up. He didn’t get into the game at all. Didn’t make any runs, didn’t look for the ball, outjumped for every header, lost possession every time. Get rid now.
Bradbury: 8 City’s best attacking player. Looked dangerous every time he received the ball. Made good runs, rarely lost possession and took his goal well. Shame about the miss at the end. But fairytale endings just isn’t City is it?
Allsopp: 6 Good, aggressive play. Took players on, not always beating them but far more promising than Greenacre.
Tiatto: 6 Gave City some much needed width and surely the time has come to give him an extended run in the team?

On a final note, thanks to all the Millwall fans and local police for keeping the City fans waiting for a whole hour after the match. It was gone 10.30pm before we were ‘released’ to make our way back home. I thought those days had ended twenty years ago. It was rather amusing though, to see not one City shirt on, or Kappa jacket, as everybody was getting ready to mingle with the locals.

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’ III

MILLWALL vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Tuesday 29th September 1998

I managed to meet up with some BVers near Tower Bridge a couple of hours before the kick-off, some excellent banter, although I don’t like the Weatherspoon policy of no singing! Walking to the ground we got the expected torrent of “F*** off back up North” etc. (you get the gist).

The game. Hhm, not a lot to talk about in the first half with most of the action coming from the fans which led to me being called a blond ba****d as we had managed to rub them up. Maybe my new Villeneuve look is a bit too distinctinve. Back to the game. Hhm, still not much happening, have we had a shot yet, aren’t they below us? It is poor, very poor and why oh why oh why is Greenacre playing and not Madge or Russell (he should get a chance in attack). Goater, once again poor; if we had a half decent striker we would have won all these games we’ve drawn. Greenacre missed a good chance early on. And Goater also had a shot saved by Spink. Then Millwall came back into it a bit forcing a couple of saves from Weaver and shooting high and wide on a number of occasions (cue: How wide do you want the goals?).

Bizzarely at half time the kiosks kindly served us beer and I had just swallowed my last mouthful and had my ticking off from the Met police for our singing in the 1st half when I saw a Millwall player score. Utter shock. Numbness. Millwall singing their one song and running onto the pitch. A couple of minutes later Millwall again got the ball and banged it in the net; surely not and offside was given – this didn’t stop the yobs running on the pitch again, and presumably spitting on the City players.

Then the fun began. Vaughan went into a 50-50 with a Millwall yob, sorry player, who retaliated by belting Vaughan who returned the compliment by shoving him away; this provoked a mass brawl in which apparently Vaughan was punched by 3 Millwall players – no wonder their fans are as bad as they are if they have these guys leading by example. It all ended with Vaughan and the other bloke being sent off; although Vaughan looked about as happy as Di Canio, he didn’t tap the ref!

After the dismissal, City’s experience and professionalism started to take over, with Allsopp making some good runs and touches, the pressure was on Millwall; then came a break against play, the whistle went, everyone stopped except the Millwall player (why wasn’t he booked, scared ref?) who put it in the net. Cue Pitch invasion number 3. City then made some good chances with Edghill forcing a good save from Spink, Goater going close and Allsopp snapping a shot wide. Then we had a comedy moment from the Millwall yobs; when a clearence was made with about 3 minutes left the ball went into the crowd, and futher into the crowd, and back into the crowd. Get the picture? This stopped when we started telling them how sad they were! The time to be added on board went up. Four minutes thank God. In the 92nd a corner came across, which I have to be honest looked like Allsopp handled, and I don’t care as Bradders was there and surely couldn’t miss from 4 yards and he didn’t. Oh how I enjoyed the goal, the silence around 3/4’s of the New Den, and cheering the team! Millwall then attacked, Weaver took the ball and hoofed it up field, Bradbury controlled the ball wonderfully with his first touch halfway inside the Millwall half and left his marker for dead. Surely he wouldn’t score? Nope.

After the game we were kept in for 90 minutes after the game due to around 300 fans rioting with the Police. We were finally led through the war zone with a few yobs still remaining behind the Police cordon hurling abuse at us and fortunately only abuse, looking at the state of the road with broken glass, sticks and rocks littering it. As we walked up to the station we heard a few yobs trying to start it off again which was quickly quashed. At 11.10pm, quite a while after the game had finished we finally arrived a London Bridge. The Football league should do something about Millwall. One copper even commented to me that it was like this every week. It’s about time they took the action they have threatened. I certainly won’t be upset if they are chucked out, or are the FL scared as well?

MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’ IV

MILLWALL vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Tuesday 29th September 1998

This was my first visit to Millwall, either Old or New Den, and on first sight I was impressed with the ground. I don’t know what capacity is, there were about 12,700 in there on Tuesday night and there seemed to be more. The atmosphere at the start of the game was really good – loads of singing and chanting from both sides. Far more City fans turned up than were expected (now where have we heard that before?) and almost filled the upper tier of the North Stand, behind one of the goals. We’d heard that one of the coaches on the way in to the stadium had had bricks thrown at it, but surely no-one would really care enough about this game to cause any more trouble? I’ve always liked going to night matches, ever since I was first allowed to go to one on a school night and felt all grown up – somehow the fact that the football’s awful doesn’t seem to matter as much when the floodlights are on. Anyway, City lined up with Weaver, Edghill, Vaughan, Fenton, Wiekens, Horlock, Pollock, Jim Whitley, Goater, Bradbury and Chris Greenacre, in for the injured Paul Dickov. On the bench were Allsopp, Tiatto and someone else – Mason?

It didn’t take too long for the night to turn sour. The first time Goater got the ball and started to go forwards, a chorus of monkey noises rang out from the home fans. Nice people, those Millwall fans. I have to admit I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but looking round at them we started to notice a few things – a completely white team, a fan base that seemed to consist (at least in the seats closest to where we were) of white males aged 20 to 35 who were constantly standing on their seats gesticulating and threatening the City fans and hurling abuse at Goater, Whitley and Edghill – suddenly this night match wasn’t so enjoyable after all. How we hoped that Goater would score the winner, preferably from a pass out of defence from Edghill, controlled and passed on by Whitley, then hammered home by Goater. Now that would have been sweet.

The first half was fairly uneventful, on the pitch at least. Greenacre had a chance in the first 10 minutes but seemed to panic and hit it wide, then Goater showed his usual finishing prowess by completely fluffing his shot on what looked like a certain goal. Their number 11 kept hacking down Whitley every time he got the ball and was booked. Weaver showed off a bit making a good diving save to his right to push the ball away for a corner – I thought it was going wide anyway but he did make it look good. Wiekens was as classy as ever (don’t know why I bother saying that, it’s always true) and Fenton was absolutely majestic in the air at the back. This lad is getting better every game, I just hope he doesn’t follow the path of other former bright sparks (such as Edghill!) and fizzle out after one good season. Two lads behind us got thrown out for singing (honest, they weren’t doing anything else) while the Millwall fans in the stands closest to us who moved the barriers back on the seats so they could get closer weren’t even spoken to. It was a bit niggly on the pitch – the ref didn’t help too much, someone should have explained the advantage rule to him, but there wasn’t anything to indicate what would happen later.

Had a quick pint at half time, naff catering facilities but there you go. As we were climbing back into our seats Millwall took the lead. I didn’t see it so can’t blame it on anyone, but as there was probably a defensive error there somewhere then chances are it was down to Vaughan. Neil Harris scored it – this is a lad who a year ago was playing for Cambridge City against such mighty teams as Halesowen and Guiseley in the Doctor Martens League. He made our defence look as if they were playing for Halesowen too on several occasions. The racial abuse at Goater etc. carried on, and the fans down closest to us now started to look really nasty, gesturing that they’d see us outside and such other rubbish. Millwall looked far better than us for most of the second half, and within a few minutes they scored again. The ball broke to Harris (again, pain in the bum that boy) who was shadowed by Wiekens. Everyone else had stopped and was just watching – it didn’t occur to me to wonder why for ages. Wiekens tried to clear it back to Weaver but the clearance fell short, so Harris turned, took it past Weaver and hit it into an empty net. Millwall fans went mad, literally. Dozens of them climbed over the barriers and ran on to the pitch – some of them to celebrate, some to try and get at us (dozy idiots, we were in the upper tier) and some to get at the players. The stewards just stood and watched so it took a long time to get the pitch cleared. I always thought it was an arrestable offence to run on the pitch during a game, but the police didn’t seem to be bothered at all. Eventually they all sat back down and the game carried on.

I sat there in complete dejected misery for the next 15 minutes, thinking “I can’t believe we’re 2-0 down, why did I decide to come, why do I keep doing this to myself, why did I have to decide to follow my mum’s team rather than my dad’s (that thought didn’t last too long though, he’s a Rag), I’m not going to any more away games, I hate them” and other such happy thoughts. I did wonder why the Millwall fans started singing “one nil” but I just assumed it was because they were stupid and couldn’t count. Suddenly a bloke sitting behind me said “what, we’re only 1-0 down?” and after some very confused “but they scored, I saw it” conversations we realised it hadn’t been allowed. This made my night.

Greenacre had gone off about 10 minutes into the second half for Allsopp, who looked more dangerous with his first touch than Greenacre had done all first half. Bradbury missed a couple more chances to even the score as City gradually started to fight their way back into the game. Tiatto came on for Whitley (or Edghill as was announced on the commentary) and with his first touch almost created a goal, running from the halfway line and putting in a great cross which the Millwall defence just cleared for another corner. About 15 minutes before the end Vaughan did a particularly nasty tackle from behind on the Millwall No. 10, Paul Shaw. The match had been getting more bad tempered throughout the second half, so it wasn’t really a surprise when Shaw turned round and lamped Vaughan. The two of them jumped up and started trying to knock lumps out of each other and everyone else joined in – don’t know what Vaughan had done to upset the rest of the Millwall team but they didn’t look as if they intended to let him off the pitch alive. Eventually it was calmed down and both Vaughan and Shaw were deservedly sent off.

City took complete control of the game after this. Wiekens left Fenton in defence on his own and went up front for a while, almost making a goal for Goater with 5 minutes to go. As the minutes ticked by we were screaming for Goater to be given the ball to repeat what happened at Notts County, Macc and Northampton. Millwall had another goal disallowed for offside (cue another pitch invasion by the moronic Millwall fans) but were struggling to clear their lines as City piled forwards. Tiatto nearly had his head kicked off when one of the Millwall defenders tackled him at a ridiculously high level and was deservedly booked. Bet Tiatto’s got lovely stud marks on his head from that. Then, unbelievable, it happened again. With 90 minutes on the clock, Horlock took a corner which found Bradbury and ended up in the net. We went absolutely crackers. The relief from the intimidation and crap that we’d been getting from the Millwall fans was immense. I got lifted up and dragged into the row of seats behind, we were celebrating that hard. When I turned round it was to see that yet more Millwall fans had gone on the pitch, this time apparently attempting to get to Bradbury and Weaver, who was in the goal in front of the stand where all the idiots had been coming out from. This time at last the police did do something and got them off the pitch, using considerably less force however than they’d used when ejecting the two lads from behind us in the first half. Two minutes later we thought we’d won. A long ball out of defence found Bradbury haring forwards. He took the ball over his shoulder, controlled it, ran into the area and hit a low hard shot that missed the post by a matter of millimetres. Oh, if only. That was about the last action of the game, we couldn’t believe we’d scraped a point away from home again.

What happened after the game has been well documented elsewhere (and I’m sure there’ll be other articles in McVittee about what happened) so I won’t say too much about it. We were kept in the stadium itself for about half and hour, then allowed to move outside but only as far as the parking area where all the coaches were – the gates were still locked and had lots of Millwall fans pressed up against them, especially the one around the back of the stand where there weren’t any police. We stayed there until about 10.30 and were finally allowed out. Didn’t see any fighting, didn’t see any trouble but there was an awful lot of broken glass all over the floor and it was obvious something fairly major had gone on. Bearing in mind that we’d all been locked in for an hour, it wasn’t us causing the trouble was it?

Returning to the football, I suppose it is at least positive that the spirit in the team is such that they do continue fighting (not literally) until the final whistle goes. We weren’t impressive, but we came away from a potentially difficult away game with a point. Millwall’s home record was excellent, not too surprising if the fans always behave like that as any ref would be too terrified not to give decisions to the home team. The intimidation that the players was getting from the crowd was immense, and I thought in the most part they did extremely well to rise above it. Wiekens and Fenton, as I mentioned before, are building a really impressive partnership and when Shelia comes in to replace Vaughan the centre of our defence will be almost sorted. Pollock was blowing hot and cold all game – either completely invisible or, on a few occasions in the second half when we were down to ten men, almost majestic in his ball winning and passing. Whitley, Edghill and Goater all had quiet games but at least we didn’t get the normal catalogue of errors. Edghill nearly scored with a cracking volley from the edge of the area, now that would have been one in the eye for the racists. Allsopp still looks dangerous when coming on as a sub but doesn’t really seem to be able to impose himself on the game as much as I’d like, and Tiatto played well until getting kicked in the head, which not surprisingly quietened him down a bit. Bradbury wasn’t as good as I’ve seen him this season but he still looks a different player to the one who was so maligned last season.

After all, we have to get promotion this year so I can never go to the New Den again.

MY FIRST ENGLISH GAME!

I just thought that I would relate a little story about my first English football game last night. Sorry if it goes on a little, but there is quite a lot to tell.

I was invited by a friend at work to see a Second Division game between Manchester City and Millwall at The Den (Millwall’s ground in SE London). He is a mad Man City fan and had a spare ticket, so I decided to go to see my first ever football game. He said that there were a few rules…

1. Don’t drink in the local pubs before the game as they are too rough.
2. Don’t drink in the local pubs after the game as they are evenrougher – make the quickest way back to the station and avoid thecouncil estates.

It all seemed easy enough.

Having shelled out my 11 quid for the privilege, we had a couple of beers at a pub in London Bridge station before the short train ride to the ground. At the ground, we had our tickets checked before we got to the ground and were sent to the away fans end and through behind a police barricade. After having our tickets re-checked at the turnstiles, we were then frisked by the security guards for bottles, cans, knives…? etc.

Before we knew it, we were in the special stand for the away fans and the game had started. The ground was ringed by police in fluro yellow jackets and stewards in fluro orange jackets. The home fans were less than welcoming with plenty of yelling, chanting and gesticulating. The crowd eventually numbered about 13,000 on a Tuesday night, with about 10,000 of them being Millwall fans.

The first half itself was pretty boring with hardly any shots at goal and plenty of mistakes by both sides. I thought that I had been sold a complete dud, but then thought that perhaps I should have expected it at a Second Division game (really Third Division behind the Premier and First Divisions).

After half time, the game came alive with a goal to Millwall in the first minute. This made the locals happy. The next thing was that there was an all-in brawl after which a player from each side was sent off. Shortly afterwards, Millwall had two further goals disallowed. This upset the locals some more and sent a couple of them running on to the pitch, only to be sent back by the security and police. The score was still 1-0.

As the game drew to a close, the locals were getting more and more animated and excited and the singing was getting louder and louder, all adding to the atmosphere. The local ball-boys were throwing the balls back into the crowd, instead of back to the players, so that they could waste time.

All of the time-wasting meant that the referee added a few minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game. In the third minute of stoppage time, Manchester City scored an equalising goal (1-1), making the people at our end of the ground happy, but turning the locals into a rage. A minute later, Man City almost scored a winning goal, but it went into the outside of the net. The referee then called full-time, a one-all draw.

The Man City fans were asked to remain in their seats for a couple of minutes to allow the home fans to leave the ground. Five minutes later, we started to make our way out, only to be stopped half-way down the stairs. The announcer said to wait for another five minutes “for our own safety”.

In the end, our wait inside the stadium lasted for just over an hour. Once the police finally let us out, we were amazed to see exactly what had been happening outside the stadium. There were between fifty and one hundred police mini-vans lined up along both sides of the road from the stadium to the station. Most of these were filled with riot police all completely dressed in their battle gear – padding, helmets, shields, etc. Behind the vans, were hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear. All of the side roads had been barricaded off by the police. Behind the barricades were some of the locals shouting abuse. Some small (2-3m) trees down the side of the road had been broken off at ground level. There was broken glass on the road and the odd paving stone lying around. Apparently, most of the cars down the side streets had had their windows smashed, too. Obviously, there had been a fair amount of fighting – Millwall fans fighting both themselves and the police.

After our hour long wait, the Man City fans were then marched down this police corridor towards the station. When we reached the station, we saw about 15 to 20 police officers charging away from us down one of the streets at a group of locals. At the station, there was a football special train waiting to take all of the away fans back to London Bridge station. Back at London Bridge, all of the shops in the station had been closed down. There were another hundred or so police on hand just to make sure that there was no more trouble, and there wasn’t. In the end, the police did an excellent job in keeping the two sets of fans apart and letting the Millwall fans fight it out amongst themselves. We even felt almost safe walking down to the station.

Once we were safely back, in London, we decided to adjourn to a local pub for a quick beer before the 11 o’clock closing time so that we could reflect on an interesting evening’s entertainment. The guys I was with said that they hadn’t seen anything like it in their 20-odd years of watching football in England. Apparently, it isn’t always like this.

All-in-all, it was an eye-opening first English football match for me. Plenty of action both on and off the field. Hopefully my next game will be a bit tamer off the pitch, and I certainly won’t be making my way back down to The Den in the near future.

I guess the most disturbing thing about the whole evening was that it happened within about two miles of London Bridge and the centre of the city.

MILLWALL MATCH REPORT!

Someone pointed me at a wonderful site, www.rinkworks.com, which takes a web page and converts it into your chosen dialect; being Millwall, it had to be Cockney, albeit from a Cockney Blue! so here you go … apologies to Svenn, who clearly writes better English than the English :-)))

MILLWALL 1 CITY 1 (TUESDAY 29/9 1998):

The rearranged motch against Millwall at “The bloody New Den” ‘ave a looked like anuvver difficult battle for the Blues. Wiv the bloody home team only 3 points behind on the table, right, and 8 points up ter front-runners Stoke, right, it were important for City ter come out of London wiv all free points tonight.

City lined up in the by now usual formation wiv the bleedin’ only change from Saturday bein’ the inclusion of out of favour striker Chris Greenacre at the bleedin’ expense of Danny Allsopp, do wot guvnor! The yung Aussie ‘ad returned ter the bench, right, along wiv Danny Tiatto and Gary Mason. The bleedin’ motch also embarked the bloody last performance for captain Jamie Pollock before enterin’ a 4 motch ban, for ‘is second red card of the season, collected against Derby in the bloomin’ Worfinktons League Cup last week.

Millwall started out the better team. Cor blimey guv, would I lie to you? Encouraged by the big crowd they put pressure on the Blues, ‘oo again ‘ave a looked like slow-starters. Paul Shor on the right ‘and side made it difficult for the bloody City defence, and Neil ‘arris could easily ‘ave given Millwall the advantage on a couple of occations; first after 24 minutes wen ‘is shot from the edge of the bloody area curled just over, and two minuites later wen Weaver were there ter collect.

City improved slowly and 10 minutes from time “new-born” striker Chris Greenacre ‘ad ‘is first opportunity of the night, right, but ‘is effort were cleard. Up ter ffen it were Nick Fenton and Gerhard Wiekens in the bleedin’ City defence that ‘ad given the Mae West performances for the oray team.

Half time score: 0-0.

Almost straight from the chuffin’ kick off, right, Paul Shor combined well and entered the City penalty area right much unchallenged. Neil ‘arris ‘ad come short on a couple of occasions in the bloomin’ first ‘alf, but this time the bloody 21 year ole made no mistake and blasted ‘ome past Nicky Weaver in the City goal, right, only 28 seconds into the half.

Six minutes into the half the chuffin’ promisin’ Chris Greenacre were replaced by Danny Allsopp, right, hopefully ter add a bit more power ter the chuffin’ strikin’ force. He immediately recived the ball in the Millwall area, right, but could not direct ‘is shot ter find the net. One minute later free City players waited inside the chuffin’ area, right, but Bradbury missed ‘is pass, and on the counter-attack Wiekens were outplayed by Shor and ‘arris. Harris were ready ter bang ‘ome ‘is second goal of the evenin’, but luckily the bloody goal were disallowed because of offside.

Twelve minutes into the half Bradbury made ‘is way into the bloody area, but ‘is shot only found the outside of the net.

After 60 minutes a nick up between Tony Vaughan and a Paul Shor resulted in an exchange of blows and the bleedin’ two ‘ad ter be separated by their team fellows. Boff players recieved no understandin’ from referee Messias ‘owever, ‘oo sent them boff off.

The bleedin’ dahnsizin’ ter ten men gave the City staff sumfink ter chew on, right, and 9 minutes after Vaughan left the pitch they replaced Jim Witley wiv Danny Tiatto, and moved Kevin ‘orlock into the back free.

Jamie Pollock again ‘ad a disappointin’ display, right? He were not able ter run the chuffin’ midfield the way ‘e ‘as shown earlier this season. The distribution were not convincin’, right, and early on in the second ‘alf ‘e should ‘ave done better ter prevent the bleedin’ Millwall midfield from openin’ up the chuffin’ City defence on a couple of occasions.

2 minutes from time anuvver great chance for the home team were squandered. One minute later it were Edghill that almost delivered at the bleedin’ uvver end of the field. The play waved from side ter side, and 2 minutes into injury time City again checked out the last minute equalizer as Lee Bradbury broke free in the bloody area and ‘it an ‘ard shot that found the back of the net. Two minutes later it could ‘ave been 2-1 for the oray team but the chance were squandered.

All in all a disappointin’ display by the bloomin’ Blues, To be ‘onest Millwall proved ter be the better team tonight, and wivout Paul Dickov, right, City lacked the offensive qualities they ‘ave shown lately, right? The result ‘owever were welcomin’, right, and right good ter hear “Blue Moon” sound between the walls at “The New Den” 5 minutes after the bloomin’ final wistle ‘ad gone.

AHH MILLWALL

I had never been to the New Den or the Old one come to that; I have however been to Leeds, OT, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal etc. in the late 70’s. So it was with son in tow and some trepidation that I made the trip to Millwall on Tuesday night.

My son has just had his 13th birthday and was adamant that he would wear his new City shirt, City jacket and hat etc. So throwing caution, common sense, brain cells etc. to the wind I thought sod camouflage and joined him in my low profile away shirt.

This addition will probably contain lots of comment on the trouble, but to be honest I only saw a bit thanks to the hour wait and superb police control of the situation (I couldn’t put up with that every home game and they deserve every penny).

The New Den is a great stadium, the facilities are excellent and you can watch the match on close circuit TV from the vending areas (Bernstein take note – CCTV for new ground please). The seats and view were good and the atmosphere was ‘unusual’. Quite a few of the people in the ground were obviously more interested in admiring my away shirt than watching the game; they seemed to keep waving at me expressing their admiration of the cut and colours. It was a little like I imagine a cow feels when it goes to market, all those admiring glances and knowing full well it’s the bolt through the bonce in a couple of hours. Now I’m a loyal Blue, aren’t we all, but I couldn’t help thinking ‘I hope we don’t bloody win, or I’m a dead man’.

City played with their accustomed style and finesse.

Weaver pulled off a couple of good saves but still insisted in punching the ball instead of catching it. Edgy has assumed the Brightwell rôle and couldn’t pass water, Vaughan played like a man possessed (possessed with no passing ability). But the rest of the team played reasonably apart from the odd panic (à la Dads Army – Don’t Panic Captain Pollock). Greenacre should have scored as should Goater and Bradbury; it was Millwall who scored first just after kick off in the 2nd half (they actually scored two more that were disallowed thanks to offside and an infringement on the halfway line). Just as we were giving up, City’s 92nd minute goal popped up as Bradders hammered the ball through a packed defence. He then very nearly got another which was about a foot away from going in. Oh by the way Vaughan got sent off for what can only be described as a grade A punch up. And City got another point.

Ninety minutes of football was then followed by 1 hour of waiting in the ground, for the rioting to stop outside, and the Police escorted us to the station. As I have to travel South to get home I wasn’t looking forward to the journey especially as there were 6 Millwall fans (no colours, 17, and hyped up after being disciplined with a police baton) on the train. They were no problem as it turned out – the shirt must have blinded them.

Ok then, how was it for you? City played a lot better than the last game I went to at Fulham, but we are still lacking in some areas. Joe Royle please note – we are useless at high ball games and we need to stop the panic in defence. Goater can’t head the ball and he either plays well or terrible (sometimes in the same game). Bradders is improving and could yet achieve the skills expected of the price tag. Tiatto should start as should Allsopp, especially now Dickov is injured.

Joe Royle has turned the team around; we used to lead 1-0 up til 10 minutes to go then lose, we now only turn it on in the last 10 minutes. This team is improving and hopefully confidence with it. Maybe our confidence will grow and we start to pick up 3 points instead of 1.

MILLWALL – NOT THE MATCH REPORT!

Blimey! What an experience. I think I can safely say that I have never been to a more intimidating, thoroughly evil little ground in my life. Me and a fellow Blue met up in Blackheath along with a father and daughter combination of Millwall season ticket holders to have much the same warnings of impending doom as were being spouted on this database. I’m sad to say that almost everything that was said yesterday turned out to be true.

From the first moments we entered the ground we were barracked and harangued from the sub-humans that draped themselves over the sides of the west and east stands. I’m sure that most of them saw only a fraction of the football (if you could call it that!) that I probably mistakenly thought that they had come to see. The stewarding and policing in the New Den is pathetic to say the least – 2 pitch invasions with only one arrest is not going to stop this sort of thing and Weaver, the City ‘keeper must had thought he’d played his last game when he was surrounded by about 20-30 Millwall fans in front of the home end who then kept kicking the ball into the net – with about the same effect as the players I hasten to add.

At the end of the match we were kept in until 10.45pm before being escorted up to Bermondsey South station, our route tastefully decorated by crazed paving and nice glittery stuff to show us the way. Even here groups of subbies were allowed to shout abuse and threats at us watched by the police, who made no attempt to control the provocation. The final 50 yards into the station saw a last ditch effort by Millwall to rush the City fans who, without any bias, were impeccably behaved throughout the evening, only to halted at the last minute by a baton charge by fully kitted up police.

So full marks to Millwall for living up to their stereotype. Nil marks for the police and stewards for their caring-sharing attitude towards City – especially the woman and 2 kids left to their own devices when they were refused access to their car which was inside the ‘no-go area’ for City and police alike – “not really my problem” and that from an inspector.

One question – Why didn’t the police keep Millwall in for 5-10 minutes after the game? City would have gone home on the coaches and trains, etc. the Millwall would have had no one to play with and the situation would probably have been a little bit calmer. Not advocating the violence one bit, but I seriously wouldn’t like to be a Millwall supporter in Moss Side come February 3rd – it is not going to be pleasant.

Oh yeah, the game was a draw, probably more than City deserved with relation to the football, but justice when you consider the appalling referee/linesman on the evening.

Never Again.

NEWS SUMMARY

70’s revisited (not)!

Most of the news this week concerns the Millwall match, both on and off the pitch. Not a very pleasant night. My brother and I were escorted back to his car by two Policeman, as attempts to go down the road we parked on were greeted with abuse and threats. I got home to Hertfordshire at around midnight, so God knows what time you all got back to Manchester. Any least the City fans came out of the evening in a good light, and it was a nice touch for Dennis Tueart to come and speak to us whilst we waited to be escorted to ‘safety’.

Defensive crisis looms!

City are facing a defensive crisis following the imminent loss of Tony Vaughan through suspension. His obvious replacement, Murtaz Shelia, is needed for an international tournament for Georgia, preventing him from taking over in the City defence from Vaughan. To further complicate matters Richard Jobson is still struggling with an ankle injury which stops him from making a long-awaited comeback. Vaughan’s three-game ban for his sending off at Millwall comes into effect two weeks after the offence, meaning he is just eligible for the re-arranged home game with Preston North End on Monday, October 12th. “I have to say I was disappointed with Tony Vaughan’s reaction at Millwall”, said Joe Royle today, before he entered hospital for a hip operation. “It wasn’t a very sensible tackle but I honestly think it was the reaction of their players that got him sent off. Now with Murtaz set to be away with Georgia for 10 days it leaves us with potential problems at the back. That is just what we don’t need at this point in the season.” Shelia underlined his improving fitness with another full 90 minutes for the reserves at Wolves yesterday afternoon. Incidentally, the home game against Preston has been put back two days to Monday, October 12th, and has a 7.45pm kick-off, but contrary to initial reports, the game is not to be shown live on Sky – that honour for the evening has gone to the enthralling clash of the titans at the Britannia Stadium, where Stoke take on Chesterfield!

Irish call up City quartet

The game against Preston was switched to Monday, October 12th because City will have – potentially at least – four players on international duty for Northern Ireland the previous weekend. Kevin Horlock and Jim Whitley were named today in the full squad for the European Championship qualifier with Finland at Windsor Park on Saturday, October 10th, with Tommy Wright named on stand-by. Jeff Whitley was named in the under-21 squad for their game against the Finns on Friday, October 9th. The same night, Gary Mason is expected to be named in the Scotland under-21 squad for their game with Estonia. Northern Ireland have no game on Wednesday, October 14th, unlike the other British countries, so Horlock and both Whitleys will be available for the Blues’ game against Preston at Maine Road on October 12th. However, if the Scotland under-21’s are in action on Tuesday the 13th against the Faroe Islands then Gary Mason will not be available for the Preston game, but as we don’t know whether the Faroes actually have an under-21 side, we’ll get back to you on that one! Tony Vaughan will be available to face Preston before he starts his three-match ban, but Jamie Pollock is out of the clash through suspension.

Millwall row rumbles on

A row has broken out over the mayhem at Millwall on Tuesday, with Sports Minister Tony Banks coming to the defence of Joe Royle. The City boss has been accused of whinging by bosses of Millwall after their fans went on the rampage. Royle attacked the behaviour of the South London supporters but Millwall have played down the incidents. Today Banks agreed with Royle. “Any violence that happens inside or outside a football ground is a matter of great concern and should be acted upon swiftly by the football authorities or the police.” The FA are waiting for police reports but the Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis has defended the thugs who invaded the pitch and ran riot after the game, injuring three policemen. “If a handful of youngsters going on to the pitch intimidates Joe Royle’s players they should go back to kindergarten. Instead of whinging he should concentrate on his team.” Paphitis then stated, quite staggeringly: “Manchester City probably have the worst record of any hooliganism of any club in recent years. Joe Royle is obviously under a lot of pressure and upset his team got relegated last year. It is very sad when you see someone of his stature end up like this.” Is this guy for real? Royle responded today: “I think the Millwall chairman may be trying to deflect from what happened. They may be closing their eyes to an obvious problem. We were frightened for our safety and it must have been worse for our supporters.” The Millwall manager Keith Stevens said: “As far as I’m concerned it was a great crowd. Joe Royle’s criticism makes me laugh. It was only youngsters who went on to the pitch and I don’t think grown men would have been intimidated. We want to get some passion back into this club.” So passion involves so-called supporters chucking bricks, bottles and lumps of concrete at the police, does it? Following the disgraceful scenes at Millwall’s New Den on Tuesday, the Lions could face the prospect of FA action. Referee Matt Messias is understood to have confirmed crowd trouble took place at the Second Division clash in his report to Lancaster Gate. Seventeen arrests were made on Tuesday evening, including eight inside the ground. After the game had ended with an injury time equaliser from City’s Lee Bradbury, police encountered a 300 strong mob in the surrounding streets hurling bricks and bottles in scenes not seen at Millwall for years. The Lions now face the prospect of playing their home fixtures behind closed doors, depending on the FA’s action.

Sheron swap latest

A newspaper report this morning claimed that Joe Royle had offered QPR £750,000 plus two City players for the Londoners’ former City striker Mike Sheron on the day that Ray Harford announced his resignation from the Loftus Road hot seat. If the report is true, Neil Heaney will certainly have been one of those two City players, but as to the identity of the other player, perm one from Ged Brannan, Craig Russell, Chris Greenacre or Ray Kelly. With Rangers yet to appoint a new boss, and with Sheron back in favour and scoring twice at Wolves last Tuesday night, don’t expect any imminent developments on the Sheron for City front.

Carlisle target City midfielder

Third Division Carlisle have revealed that they are hoping to sign a new midfielder from City by Friday lunchtime, but are staying tight-lipped about the player’s identity. Various names have been mentioned including Nigel Clough and Neil Heaney, but it is unlikely that they are targets as Carlisle will not be able to meet their wage demands. Likelier targets will be Neil Morley and Andrew Porteous, who have as yet failed to break into the first team at Maine Road, but are said to possess plenty of ability. Morley has been at City since the age of 16 while Porteous was signed from Nottingham Forest by former boss Frank Clark soon after he left the City Ground. Michael Knighton said of the situation: “We have been in touch with Manchester City, and there’s a chance we could have somebody in by the weekend.”

Bailey stakes his claim

Alan Bailey has become the latest striker to stake a claim for a place in the Manchester City strike force. The teenage forward scored twice in the reserves’ 5-2 win over Wolves at Molineux yesterday, the other goals coming from Craig Russell, Ian Bishop and Ray Kelly. Chris Greenacre got the vote at Millwall on Tuesday but he was substituted after 50 minutes, earning Danny Allsopp an outing as replacement. “I was pleased with the contribution of Chris and his substitution was not meant as a criticism in any way. I felt Chris would be a better replacement for Paul Dickov but once we went behind Danny Allsopp was more likely to score,” said Joe Royle. Bailey could now find himself in the squad for the home game with Burnley at Maine Road on Saturday. Fans are urged to buy tickets early with no sales likely on the day Of the game, with the membership introduced as a safety measure.

Kinky’s presence lives on

Both Georgi Kinkladze and Uwe Rösler were on the subs’ bench for their respective sides in last night’s Champions League matches; Kinkladze’s Ajax beat Porto 2-1, while Rösler’s Kaiserslautern drew 0-0 in Helsinki. With regard to last night’s action, let’s hope that Nicky Weaver wasn’t watching Peter Schmeichel for tips on how to deal with high balls pumped into the box! Meanwhile, Kinkladze’s presence in Manchester lives on; a greyhound named Kinkladze runs tonight from trap 6 in the 7.55 race at Belle Vue.

Preston date set

Monday October 12th is the new date for the visit of Preston North End to Maine Road, following the postponement from the previous Saturday because of International call ups. Defender Tony Vaughan will be available for the crucial meeting with Preston North End. There were fears that the influential defender would miss the match due to his suspension, following his sending off at Millwall. Tony is due to miss three matches starting on October 17th, but the clubs have agreed a Monday night meeting at Maine Road on October 12th. That’s just two days after Northern Ireland meet Denmark in Belfast when Kevin Horlock and Jim Whitley could be in action. Joe and the management team will be hoping that the duo will come through the Euro qualifier unscathed.

Duo continue comeback

City reserves cruised to their fourth win in six games with a fine 5-2 win over Wolves which underlined the Blues’ Pontin’s League First Division title aspirations for this season. Both Murtaz Shelia and Ian Bishop continued their comebacks this afternoon playing the whole of the match at Molineux. As well as Shelia and Bishop the line up also included the likes of Tommy Wright, Lee Crooks, Craig Russell, Jeff Whitley, Michael Brown, who played an hour of the match, and there was also a substitute appearance from Anthony Fenton. City took the game to Wolves from the word go with Shelia seeing his header cleared of the line following a corner from Ian Bishop. Craig Russell’s 20 yard free kick, which went in off the underside of the bar, separated the two sides at half time but a fine second half performance saw City tear Wolves apart. There was almost a 9-minute hat trick for Alan Bailey. He grabbed his first five minutes into the second period with a low drive, added a second moments later, cutting in from the right before beating the ‘keeper at his near post. On 59 minutes he thought he’d completed his hat trick only to see his effort disallowed for offside. Wolves then brought themselves back into the game with goals from Mark Atkins and a penalty from Mark Jones. Ray Kelly was the guilty party for giving away the spot kick, after coming on for Craig Russell, but he made amends in the 90th minute by scoring a tap-in to round of the convincing 5-2 victory. Just minutes earlier Ian Bishop had come up with the goal of the game, a marvellous lob from a wide angle on the left to put City 4-2 in front.

Millwall fans go on rampage

City fans had to run a gauntlet of rioting Millwall fans outside the New Den in South London last night. Violence flared at the end of the game when around 300 London fans attacked police with riot shields in streets around the ground. The scenes were among the worst seen at Millwall in recent years according to a senior police officer in charge of the operation. Chief inspector Chris Miles said: “The Millwall fans congregated outside the local public house and started to throw bottles. We had to employ police dressed in riot gear. The Millwall fans attacked the police with anything they could lay their hands on. It is the worst I have seen for a very long time and it meant that we had to keep the City fans inside the ground for over an hour for their own safety.” Seventeen arrests were reportedly made including eight inside the ground. Five for racial abuse, two for getting on the pitch and one for threatening behaviour. After the match several fans were injured as bricks and bottles were hurled at police in the incident which took two hours to bring under control. Millwall fans appear to be entirely to blame with City’s contingent of 2,000 supporters locked inside the ground for an hour after the match. The City team coach was also delayed leaving the stadium en route to Manchester. Police feared for the safety of the City officials and would not allow them to leave South London until the area was declared safe. The Football Association will now wait for the police report before deciding what, if any, action should be taken.

Royle in a rage

An angry Joe Royle cut short his after-match news conference last night because he was so incensed by the raw deal he felt his team got at Millwall. The City boss was upset by Millwall’s approach to crowd control and the display of the York referee Matt Messias. “Do the crowd always referee the game here?” Royle asked the assembled press corps. He struggled to retain his composure as he remarked: “If we’d have scored a winner I don’t think we’d have got out of here alive… is it usual for the fans to run on the pitch? Tony Vaughan got sent off for being punched and kicked and in another incident Danny Tiatto was almost decapitated,” were the only comments Royle made before he dashed off refusing to answer further questions. Millwall fans staged a number of minor pitch invasions during the game with stewards unable to control them. City players also spoke of their fear as baying Millwall fans threatened them as they celebrated the injury time equaliser from Lee Bradbury. The striker then missed a further chance to have won the match for City with the last kick of the game.

Vaughan faces three-game ban

Tony Vaughan faces a three-match suspension following his sending off at Millwall last night. The centre back was at fault for the Millwall goal 20 seconds into the second half. Then he made a wild challenge on Paul Shaw who retaliated, a clash that brought the red card for both men. However, Vaughan came off worse as Millwall players punched him in a mass brawl. Vaughan’s suspension looks set to start on October 17th when the Blues are set to travel to Wigan. He is also set to miss the games against Lincoln and Reading.

Sheron transfer setback

Mike Sheron’s return to scoring form is likely to mean bad news for Manchester City in their pursuit of the Queens Park Rangers striker. Sheron struck twice in Rangers’ win at Wolves last night and any transfer to Maine Road is now likely to be shelved until the managerial situation at Loftus Road is resolved. Joe Royle made another inquiry for Sheron last weekend but Ray Harford told him he was resigning and therefore the City boss would have to speak to someone else. His attempts to find a scoring formula saw Chris Greenacre start his first game in almost a year last night. He missed an easy chance early on and then was substituted five minutes into the second half by Danny Allsopp who was on the bench with Danny Tiatto and Gary Mason. Richard Edghill stayed at left wing back with Jim Whitley on the opposite flank. Meanwhile reports from Cumbria are suggesting that Carlisle are watching one of City’s midfielders. As yet the potential target remains unnamed.

MILLWALL – MATCHVIEW

This was going to be a report of a game of football, but the performance and result seem irrelevant to the other goings on. I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad that City had not won a game when they had a chance in the 94th minute to win, if Lee Bradbury’s shot had crept inside the post. Together with Lee’s 92nd minute equaliser I doubt whether he or the rest of the team would have got off the pitch alive.

With Millwall’s goal in the 46th minute came the first pitch invasion. Stewards were not in control, the tactic being to hope the Millwall ‘fans’ would return to their seats. There did not seem many (if any) arrests either. Again with two disallowed Millwall goals there was further encroachment. Again no real response to maintain order. With the City fans sat in the Upper Tier behind one of the goals and no fans beneath, there was a certain amount of ‘natural barrier’ protection, though I hate to think what would have happened if this fixture had been played on a Saturday and the attendance was bigger.

The referee did not exactly help matters by not stamping his authority on the game (maybe he was afraid of the Millwall fans afterwards?). Vaughan’s tackle on Millwall’s Paul Shaw after about an hour sparked a mass brawl with most of the other players joining in. This was yards from the touchline and it was lucky that this didn’t spark the Millwall fans off. Luckily the ref kept the bookings even by sending off Vaughan and Shaw.

The main talking point was what happened afterwards. The City fans were kept behind for an hour, although when we were finally escorted, flanked by police to the station it was apparent why. Riot police and dog handlers everywhere. The odd ambulance. The road was showered in broken glass (an upturned bottle bank was nearby), broken bricks, lumps of concrete, branches ripped off trees. Even back at London Bridge station there was still a heavy police presence.

The following quotes appeared in the next night’s London Evening Standard:-

“… The Football Association confirmed they will be looking into the crowd violence which marred Millwall’s clash with Man City… “

“… a crowd of around 300 fans were involved in running battles with police outside the ground after a game which was interrupted by pitch invasions…”

“City manager Joe Royle claims his players were threatened and spat at and the match referee revealed he had included a number of similar incidents in his official match report…”

“The Football Association will now await the police’s version of events before deciding whether to take any further action. Millwall were handed a two year suspended sentence in 1994 after a pitch invasion in the club’s First Division play-off semi-final with Derby County. They were warned any further disturbance would lead to a £100,000 fine and two games behind closed doors. Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis said he would act swiftly to deal with the troublemakers.” …

The Chief Inspector of Lewisham police was also quoted as saying it was the worst football violence he had seen in 20 years in the force.

I hope City get us out of this division and we never have the opportunity of going to The Den again. I certainly won’t be going back.

APOLOGIES TO BLUE VIEWERS

As I listened to the commentary on the Millwall game, I was under the false impression that the woman at the game commentating for all the Blues around the world, actually understood the rules of football! From the 50th-80th minute, I was sure we were 0-2 down. This is supposed to be a professional commentator! She was misleading the City fans around the world. Incredible! I tried to keep my fellow Blue Viewers updated, not knowing that this woman was suffered from halucinatory images, I continued to claim we were 0-2 down. When we scored she miraculously changed the score to 1-1. I hereby apologize to my fellow Blue Viewers (some of whom, me included, logged off after hearing we were 0-2 down) for misleading them. Can we get a better commentator for the next game?

PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES

The South Australian branch of the City Supporters’ club are planning to attend the 2nd Ashes cricket test in Adelaide en masse.

If you are travelling to these parts around this time and plan to ease the pain of watching City by seeing the Aussies get leathered, let me know and I’ll keep you informed of all the details.

Let’s make sure that the dominant colours in the barmy army this year are laser blue (or citrus if you really want to make a statement).

ARCHIVE MATCH REPORT

I have recently finished reading the excellent Gary James book, and two main things really leapt out of the pages at me. One was the sheer amount of history that our wonderful club has about it – great players, great matches, great occasions. The other was the unmistakable signs, as the 1960s ended, of the problems within the club that festered and grew over the next decades, leading inexorably to our recent steady decline.

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but reading the book and looking back it all seems so bloody obvious and almost inevitable. One important factor was the hugely negative influence Malcolm Allison and his ego had, firstly in the way he broke up the partnership with Joe Mercer, then later in the rôle of “Lunatic In Charge Of The Asylum” in his 2nd spell in charge from 1979. So it prompted me to look at the old match reports from the time …

I have a large archive of newspaper cuttings for match reports going back to about 1976, obviously including lots of City games. What about having an occasional feature of an old match report to remind us all of how things were in the good old days (and also of course sometimes the bad old days)? There must be plenty of other sad folk like me who have collections of this old stuff! Dig it out and send it in, let’s put Ashley’s hard disc under some severe stress!

Ideally there would be some relevance to the present day – for example by a direct contrast to what is happening now, or something that can be seen to have had a direct influence on today’s situation. In other words, trying to add to some sort of understanding of the real roots of why we are in this mess, rather than just bemoaning the fact!

For example as a starter, here’s one from Feb 3 1979 – this was heralded as a triumph for Malcolm Allison at the time, although it was basically Tony Book’s team. Allison was soon to start dismantling this team. Present day links? Well there’s Donachie, didn’t get a mention in this report, would have played with his customary solidity. There was Asa Hartford of course. Also a penalty “thumped home” … when did a City player last do that? And the immortal Peter Barnes, off to star for England. It’s a long way from Macclesfield.

Spurs 0 Man City 3

The golden cock atop the grandstand at White Hart Lane looked sparkling, proud and defiant against the blue of the North London sky on Saturday afternoon. But by the evening the sun had set and the motif looked grey and lifeless. The gold shone on the bangle around the neck of Malcolm Allison for at last his new team had won a league match – for the first time since October 14th.

On a tactical and skill level City were devastating against an inept Spurs side that included 2 players making thier débuts. Allison has brought back that much needed confidence to City. Barnes and Channon played wide left and right taunting McAllister and Holmes with ease. Corrigan was Corrigan, the defence marked man-to-man with the immortal Colin Bell sweeping up and organising behind with great authority. Kidd was aggressive and the midfield harried to great effect. It was all a rather impressive attacking force.

It made no difference at half time when Watson went off with a thigh injury. That heralded the appearance of Deyna and so, on the same field for the first time since at Rosario in the World Cup in Argentina, there was the Pole and Ardiles. Tottenham’s most useful player was Taylor, although his main contribution was in defence rather than attack, where he twice cleared off the line, from Watson and Channon. Channon was to get reward however when Barnes set him up for City’s third goal with 15 minutes remaining. Channon headed home forcefully.

Barnes had a hand in all City’s goals, scoring one of them, and on this form will electrify Wembley for England on Wednesday with his speed, sense of pupose and control. On the half hour he raced away while Spurs were still demanding a penalty in the City area, homed in on goal like a heat guided missile, and Perryman pulled him down in the box. Kidd thumped home the penalty. Ten minutes later Barnes left Ardiles and Perryman in his wake as he rocketed through and this time he did not self-destruct. He hit target with a glorious shot which left poor Kendall back in the propellor age. It was a sight to gladden the hearts of the hard-suffering City fans.

Tottenham:
Kendall, McAllister, Holmes, Hoddle, Lacy, Perryman, Galvin, Ardiles, Armstrong, Beavon, Taylor.

Manchester City:
Corrigan, Donachie, Power, Owen, Watson (Deyna), Futcher, Channon, Bell, Kidd, Hartford, Barnes.

WOMBLE MERGER?

All this talk of merger is interesting but aren’t there rules about this sort of thing? I thought you weren’t allowed to have a controlling stake in more that one club at a time (wasn’t that a problem Robert Maxwell had in the eighties?). Otherwise one club would have to cease to exist. Is there any precedent for this anywhere on the planet?

REGARDING THE RUMOURED MERGER

I remember “The Bouncing Czech” owning two clubs some years ago. He then proposed to merge Oxford and Reading to create Thames Valley Royals. I recall that the FA legislated to ensure that a party cannot have a stake in more than one club. Therefore, I doubt that there is much substance to the rumour. My major concern is at the reaction of some City supporting correspondents. I have great admiration for the Dons, and their prospering with bugger all financial resources. They do it by getting the best out of their players, something that the club dear to our own hearts has not done (remember Terry Phelan – brilliant for Wimbledon – err … well … he did once score a great goal on telly for City … but). Their supporters are not glory hunters, and they have had to put up with the problems of ground sharing. If I were one of them I would be deeply upset at the thought of losing my team to long suffering Manchester. I used to live in Baltimore, USA. They once had an American Football side called the Colts, who got great crowds. One morning the city woke up to find that the owner had moved the team to Indianapolis where a new stadium was on offer. The bitterness is still there now in Baltimore. I am sure that this rumour is not true. However, if it is, are we really prepared to be part of a great conspiracy against the faithful fans of Wimbledon? Are we really prepared to be the most hated team in the land? I think we should leave that honour to our red neighbours and concentrate on getting back to the top on our own merits.

OPINION – GET REAL CHAPS!

As some of you know, I am an afficionado of Div. 2 having spent the bulk of my 12 or so football watching years in Bristol, observing Bristol City thrashing around Div. 2 with varying degrees of success and failure.

As a result of this, I have kept a close watch on the reactions of Mcivta subscribers to our arrival in said Division (alternatively known as ‘Down Among The Dead Men’). It seems to me that many of us have still not taken fully on board the fact that we are in Div. 2 for the good reason that we are a Div. 2 team.

A case in point (and here I must confess I have a vested interest) is the flak I see Shaun Goater getting, week in week out. And this despite the fact that he is on a goal every other game, or better, since he joined the club from Bristol City. “Why” people write “does he miss so many chances?”, “Why is his ball control so bad?” Well, to state the bleedin’ obvious, the reason is that he is a Div. 2 striker. If he got more goals, if he could head the ball better, if he had better ball control, if he appeared interested for more than 20 or so minutes a game, then he wouldn’t be at Maine Road but with a Premiership side. Simple really! This guy has averaged 25 goals a season for the past 4 or more seasons, and I go hand in hand (metaphorically, of course) with the Rotherham supporter who sang his praises in the pages a few weeks back. One Shauny Goater …

On a lighter tack, I am amused by reactions to grounds and styles of play; the horror of Moss Rose, the horror of Northampton! Well, the computer has kept the best of the lot groundwise for the last away game of the season. Where? The Memorial “Stadium” (previously the Memorial Ground until our local rivals, Bristol Rovers stole it in a hit and run raid from their landlords, Bristol Rugby Club. What’s it like? Well, I have only seen it on the box, but it only has 3 sides occupied, an open end, and terracing on both sides with a crap old grandstand on one side, and a crap new one on the other. Worse, from our point of view, they limit away tickets to 750. However, given that they haven’t had a sell out there since they moved from their previous groundshare in Bath, cunning Blues will prevail, even if it means a trip down to their superstore in Kingswood (a suburb of Bristol on the way out to Bath) where I got our tickets for the League (for so it will always be to me) Cup game against the Gas (as they are known in Bristol) at Twerton Park some years back. I’m hoping to get a ticket off friends who are Gas season ticket holders.

I was interested in how we would cope with Northampton; they, with Gillingham (though I can’t confirm this with regard to this season) are the storm troopers of the Second Division; Bristol City fans are much enamoured of Northampton, despite them providing one of the worst games of last season at Ashton Gate (and most Div. 2 grounds, I suspect), as they beat Bristol Rovers in last season’s play-off semis. Despite the Gas taking a 3-1 lead to Northampton, they crumbled before wave after wave of Panzer attacks from Northampton, who muscled them out of the game and caused havoc in their box, winning 3-0 and taking the final spot.

A few other thoughts on this season; bar the débâcle against Fulham I haven’t caught City yet; and the Fulham game was a Sky job; I actually think that we will get promoted – hopefully automatically – this season, even though we are making rather heavy weather of it; early doors yet, and when did we last go 12 or so games in the league with only one defeat? I look forward to seeing the likes of Fenton, Mason & Weaver … fair dos to JR for bringing them in, tho’ the average man/boy/woman/girl/dog in the street would be a better option than Tommy Wright to my mind with regard to the Goalie’s job. As one who saw the incerdible cock-ups of Joe Corrigan’s first seasons at Maine Road, I’m hopeful that Weaver will take his place in the long roll of great City goalies.

OPINION – ACCOUNTS

Many thanks to Joel Adams for the run down on City’s abysmal financial performance. Not only do we get things wrong on the pitch, there seems to be no sign of improvement on the financial front. I recall sending a similar email last year bemoaning the fact that it is simply not good enough for City to increase turnover without addressing the profitability of the club. Although I do not have access to the full details, I have summarised Joel’s numbers to try to see if there are any areas which stand out other than the big loss.

Profit & Loss

Turnover 			£15.3
Costs
Prov for Downsizing    (£ 2.3)
Interest on Loans      (£ 1.1)
Transfer Fees - Loss   (£ 1.9)
Payroll - 141          (£ 8.7)
Other -  ?             (£ 7.6)
Total Costs            (£21.6)
Loss                   (£ 6.3)

Balance Sheet

Assets
Current Playing Staff            ?
Maine Road                       ?
Tax Losses Carried Forward  £ 22.0
Total Assets                £    ?
Liabilities
Loans
Directors' Loans           (£ 3.3)
Bank Overdraft             (£ 3.2)
Borrowings                 (£13.0)
Total Loans                (£19.5)
Other Liabilities
Loyalty Bonuses            (£ 3.7)
Transfer Fees              (£ 0.7)
                           (£ 4.4)

Statistics

(a) Interest Rate on Loans = Interest Charged / Loans

			= £ 1.1 / £ 19.5
			= 5.64 %

Assuming Interest is being charged on all debts, City appear to have negotiated a reasonable interest rate on outstanding debts. There doesn’t appear to be room for improvement other than pay off the debt!

(b) Average Wages/Salaries Paid

			= Payroll / No of Employees
			= £ 8.7 / 141
			= £ 62 K per employee

How much are the players getting if the average wage is at £62k? – Using £20k as the average salary for non-playing staff of approx 90 then the players are still earning around £138k (over £2.5k per week!). What happened to paying the players what they’re worth – i.e. results on the pitch?

(c) Transfer Fees

I presume the £5 million we got for Kinky isn’t included in the above numbers? In view of the fact that we have had to give away the majority of the players we paid big £ for, the loss of (£1.9) could have been a lot worse. I think future signings need to be made extremely carefully – 1 year contracts with minimal wages and big performance bonuses. No signings over £1 million until we are in the First Division at least.

(d) Other Costs – £ 7.6 m

I wonder what makes up these costs?

Did the 1998 Accounts have any forecasts for the coming season regards future profitability?

I am at a loss how City continue to make promises regards fixing the problem of high wages etc. yet year in, year out the same old excuses are being trotted out.

Let’s hope Mr Berstein can sort out the mess.

To my mind I don’t think it matters how much City increases the turnover, they always seem to spend more than they earn. Until this situation is resolved we will continue to struggle off the pitch as well as on.

OPINION – EDGHILL

May I endorse the comments made in the last issue made by our US contributor who basically said that Richard Edghill is s***e – and even worse, thinks he is quite good. I agree wholeheartedly. He was admittedly a good player before his serious injury, but since then, let’s face facts, he has been absolutely dire in 95% of the matches. He really does drive me up the wall. He contributes absolutely nothing going forward; would anybody like to tell me how many times he has darted down the channels into the gap between full back and centre back? I will save you the bother – a big fat zero this season. His favourite tactic is to jog forward and stand next to the opposition full back pretending he wants the ball then looking frustrated when it doesn’t come.

When he does get in a position to cross (and the only time when this occurs is when one of our players has got far enough forward to roll the ball back to him as he never successfully takes people on) his crosses are of the most abysmal quality imaginable. What about his defence I hear you cry? Well, Mr Edghill will fall for the most obvious tricks in the winger’s repertoire let alone the fancy ones. A little step over by a 3rd Division winger will have our Ricky darting inside leaving the wing free for aforesaid winger to run into.

I know this seems harsh, but when people of this quality get into the side it sums up what we are at the moment. Give me Tiatto (even out of position) every time over Edghill. At least he runs for the team and attempts to take people on.

The most depressing aspect, and I reckon the most worrying, is the high regard Edghill is held in by Joe Royle. He was commenting after the game against Northampton (another crap display/result) that he had played Edghill out of position as ‘he is a quality defender – there isn’t a better defender in this division.’ What a load of absolute s***e – Wiekens and Fenton are infinitely superior for a start. If JR thinks Edghill is quality I really do despair as there are 27,000 people who turn up every week who can vouch he is nothing of the sort.

The sooner we get rid of crap like Edghill, the bigger the chance for decent youngsters to come through like Fenton.

SPARE ENGLAND TICKET

I’ve got a spare ticket for the England vs. Bulgaria, Euro 2000 Championships, qualifying game on Saturday 10th October, k.o. 15:00. The ticket price is 25 quid.

Are there any interested parties, then please get in touch.

BLUE HUMOUR

For a good laugh at United’s expense go to:

http://fool.co.uk/bribble/1998/980922.htm

And to all the BFC lads, remember the Ueda karaoke and sing along…

RESULTS

Wednesday September 30

Walsall             0-2   Reading               3,729
                          Williams (8)
                          Brebner (66)

Tuesday September 29

Millwall            1-1   Manchester City      12,726
Harris (46)               Bradbury (90)
Fulham              2-0   Wycombe Wanderers     7,447
Coleman (14)
Bracewell (68)

Second Division Table

Wednesday September 30

                             HOME            AWAY
                         P  W  D  L  F  A   W  D  L  F  A   Pts   GS
Stoke City              10  4  0  1  8  3   4  0  1  9  5    24   17
Preston North End       10  3  1  1 13  5   3  2  0  9  6    21   22
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Fulham                  10  3  2  0  9  3   3  1  1  5  3    21   14
Blackpool               10  4  1  0  9  3   2  1  2  6  9    20   15
Bournemouth             10  4  1  0  9  1   2  1  2  5  5    20   14
Walsall                 10  2  1  2  8  8   4  0  1  6  4    19   14
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Manchester City         10  3  2  0  9  3   1  3  1  5  7    17   14
Luton Town              10  3  1  1  6  2   2  1  2  5  6    17   11
York City                9  2  2  1  7  4   2  1  1  7  8    15   14
Colchester United       10  2  1  2  4  4   2  2  1  8  7    15   12
Notts County            10  2  1  2  6  5   2  1  2  7  6    14   13
Millwall                10  3  2  0  7  3   1  0  4  3  9    14   10
Chesterfield            10  4  0  1  5  2   0  2  3  1  6    14    6
Bristol Rovers          10  3  2  0 12  5   0  2  3  2  6    13   14
Wrexham                 10  3  1  2  9  7   0  2  2  2  7    12   11
Gillingham              10  2  1  2  8  5   0  4  1  5  6    11   13
Wigan Athletic          10  2  1  2  7  5   1  1  3  4  6    11   11
Burnley                 10  2  2  1  6  5   0  1  4  3  8     9    9
Northampton Town        10  0  4  1  5  7   1  1  3  5  7     8   10
Oldham Athletic         10  1  1  3  5  7   1  1  3  4  9     8    9
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading                  9  1  2  0  5  2   1  0  5  4 14     8    9
Macclesfield Town       10  1  1  3  2  4   1  1  3  3  7     8    5
Lincoln City            10  1  0  4  7 11   0  2  3  0  7     5    7
Wycombe Wanderers       10  0  1  4  2  7   0  1  4  3 10     2    5

WWW MANCHESTER CITY SUPPORTERS’ HOME PAGE:
http://www.uit.no/mancity/

MCIVTA ADDRESSES:
Contributions: Ashley – mcivta@tollbar.u-net.com
Subscriptions & Club Questions: Steve – sbolton@buxtonrd.u-net.com
Technical Problems: Paul – paul@city-fan.org

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in MCIVTA are entirely those of the subscribersand there is no intention to represent these opinions as being thoseof Manchester City Football Club, nor of any of the companies anduniversities by whom the subscribers are employed. It is not inany way whatsoever connected to the club or any other relatedorganisation and is simply a group of supporters using this mediumas a means of disseminating news and exchanging opinions.

Ashley Birch, mcivta@tollbar.u-net.com

Editor: