As former West Ham striker Jimmy Greaves once eloquently put it, football's a funny old game. When the draw for the Second Round of the Carling Cup was made a fortnight ago most observers laughed and made references to Green Street and other crap films that have tried to put a Hollywood gloss onto football violence. Pundits up and down the country described it as tasty and even Matt Le Tissier - who paired the two teams together - apologised in advance to the police. However, the morning after the night before no one is laughing anymore and the same observers, pundits and fans who thought it was all such a big joke two weeks ago are now condemning both sets of supporters, with Millwall once again coming out worse for wear.
Today has seen heavy rotation of last night's trouble on the various news channels and internet sites and once again the messageboards have been bombarded by internet warriors declaring Lions fans to be scum of the Earth, despite clearly not being in full possession of the facts. Bile and hatred poured out of the keyboards of this brave warriors while phone-in shows were once again in melt down as "fans" from across the country vented their spleens. And despite TV footage clearly showing three pitch invasions from the home side's fans, not to mention to small fact that both teams had to leave the field of play, it is Millwall that have come in for the major share of the criticism.
And once again some of the comments have been spell-blindingly idiotic and one wonders just how many knee-joints were put out of place as they reacted to incoming reports from Sky News. First up, on Millwall Mad at least, were a couple of Tottenham fans who clearly heard the words "trouble" and "Millwall" and put two and two together to come up with five. Apparently it was all Millwall and - obviously taking a break from painting their face to watch "Super Sunday" - they expressed their sympathy to their "fierce rivals" West Ham. One even had the balls to accuse us of stabbing one of our own fans. Both obviously had know idea what had gone on at Upton Park and - more worringly - didn't seem to care.
Next up it was the turn of those idiots from Hull, who came out in full force to vent their spleens once again and remind the nation about the incident - which didn't involve ANY Hull City fans (despite arrests to the contrary). One female fan rang up BBC's Five Live to tell the listeners how the KC Stadium had been destroyed by Lions fans in January while others returned to the messageboards to hammer out (no pun intended) their disgust once again. Funny but when I watch The Tigers - raaaaah! - on Match of the Day back in February it didn't look like they were playing in a ruin on the lines of the Coloseum in Rome, but hey, what do I know?
By this time Sky and the BBC both got in on the act and - most amusingly - both ran a quote from a Millwall fan picked up from the internet that was nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek jibe made by someone that wasn't even present at Upton Park. And while Sky ran last season's arrest figures to stress just how many arrests were made at The Den compared to the Boleyn Ground like that was some kind of proof the BBC ran an idiotic sound bite from a steward who said he couldn't help but be intimidated by 3,200 Millwall fans. Had their been that many in the ground he would have had a point but at least that explains why it was so easy for The Hammers' fans to invade the pitch three times - all the stewards were too intimidated by the away fans to do anything about the home supporters.
However, as the day progressed things took an unexpected turn. Martin Samuels of the Daily Mail - a West Ham fan who has never had a kind word to say about The Lions - had an article published online that condemned his fellow fans and made it clear that Millwall were on their best behaviour inside the stadium. This was followed by another well-balanced piece in the London Paper before both Tony Cottee and Mark Bright came to The Lions defence on radio. But that didn't deter some...
Back on the messageboards the doors of the "Karen Brady School of Thought When It Comes To Football Hooliganism" were open for business. Those with long enough memories will remember the incident at St. Andrews when - despite press and police reports to the contrary - the then Managing Director of Birmingham City blamed crowd trouble on The Lions just because they were in the stadium. And one post actually had the balls to suggest that West Ham were not to blame - because the camera man was obviously too scared to move from his position to film the Millwall fans. After all, trouble always follows The Lions...
In many respects, he is probably right. Trouble does seem to follow The Lions but then what do people expect? More often than not when teams play Millwall their "firms" fancy their chances against football's most notorious supporters and make a name for themselves. More often than not it is some small, backwater club from the North where unemployement has been at 100% ever since the coal mine shut down who will present their champion to do battle with The Lions for the opportunity to win the prized pig from the town fete. Occasionally, however, the opposing side are more glamourous but the result is the same - albeit for a prize greater than a stuffed pig. These are the elite, after all...
But let's be honest, both sets of fans expected trouble. There always is. However, when The Hammers reduced The Lions' allocation of tickets the chances of something serious kicking off outside the ground was always likely. The atmosphere is always highly charged - only the Glasgow Derby can really compete with it in terms of hostility in British football - and a midweek Cup game - the first since Teddy Sheringham and Tony Cascarino played up front in a Simod Cup victory at Upton Park in the late 80s - was always going to be a tinderbox.
But at the same time it wasn't the Millwall fans that ran across the pitch to try and get at the opposition support - or at least attempt to. Although most simply ran to the half-way line before wiggling their backsides in the direction of The Lions faithful and running away when confronted with a line of police horses. Well, those that could run. Some clearly had been enjoying their mother's cooking for far too long and could only waddle onto the pitch - but hats off to them for actually making it over the wall and past those stewards still intimidated by the away fans.
As for events outside the ground, what did people expect when the fans arrived to be confronted - and ambushed - by the West Ham fans? Stand their and take it? Somewhat surprisingly, it was also suggested that Upton Park had never experienced crowd trouble before last night... Some people really need to take their Euro 96/Soccer AM-tinted glasses off and wake up an smell what they are shovelling.
The Sex Pistols once sang that no one is innocent. Show me a football fan who can say there is no trouble at their club and I will show you a liar. Millwall fans are no angels but it takes a special kind of moron to point the finger when TV evidence is clearly telling you you are wrong. Look out for them when Tottenham take on Hull City later on in the season. They'll be sitting in both ends.