Millwall Away

Obviously, the flip side of the ferocious atmosphere whipped up at home games, combined with the general reputation of Millwall fans, would be the expectation of rough treatment at away games. But shared memories of battles and bust-ups are also part of the shared and cherished heritage of die-hard fans, some of them organised in ‘firms’ like the Bushwackers (below).

‘Away games were murder (inaudible, laughter). Away games, guaranteed, you’re guaranteed to take abuse and whatever and, because you’re different for one, and they want to put you off. You’re easy to spot, you see. Obviously, you’re easy to spot and they want to put you off your game so they try and, you know, bring you down, you know, and you’ve just got to get on with it’.

(Trevor Lee, Black British)

‘On this particular occasion, I was sitting on a train going up North, we got all our cans of beer and our food and that [….] and one bloke sort of came and sort of looked at me, wondered what I was doing, realised I was doing the cryptic crossword in the Telegraph, and told me to “put it away, mate, you’re giving us a bad name”.’

(Frank Preston, White British)

‘Every club thinks that they’re the hardest […] they wanted to be the top firm, or they wanted to hear things on the telly and things like that […] I don’t know, but it’s like everyone wants to be Millwall, make a name for themselves or whatever, you know what I mean?’

(John James, Black British)