The rivalry between Millwall and West Ham is one of the most intense in English football, and former hooligan Cass Pennant has warned that the two sets of fans should never be allowed to meet. Pennant, whose life inspired a film and who was previously heavily involved with the Inter City Firm, put forward the proposal in his book You're Going Home in a F***ing Ambulance: Hooligan Wars – The Inside Story.
Rare meeting this weekend
In 2022, his cherished West Ham were playing Premier League football, meaning clashes between the East End club and their south London rivals were rare. Their most recent meeting took place in 2012. However, that all shifts this weekend, as Millwall host West Ham at The Den in a Championship fixture that will draw nationwide attention, primarily due to the intensity surrounding this particular derby, reports our sister site, Football London.
Cass, who grasps the ferocity of this rivalry better than most, wrote in his book: "Final word on these two teams and their supporters is simply that they should NEVER meet, and the only way you can solve that is to ban away fans. There is a fierce rivalry that is beyond the rivalry of most football derbies."
A history of violence
One of the most recent clashes in the 'Dockers derby' occurred in 2009 when Millwall travelled to Upton Park in the Carabao Cup. The match was marred by three pitch invasions, while a 44-year-old Millwall supporter was stabbed before kick-off.
Reflecting on his memories of the evening to The Athletic, former West Ham goalkeeper Rob Green recalled: "I was in front of the Millwall fans, they'd ripped up the chairs and started throwing them on the pitch. But then they started pulling out the metal framework that held the seats in. That's when I realised, 'S***, this is going to be a long night.' It was venomous hatred." He went on to say that "nothing about that game felt safe", while former Millwall goalkeeper David Forde recollected: "That night was just extreme hooliganism."
Fatal consequences
Offering a supporter's perspective on the derby, former hooligan Cass, now a film producer and author, wrote in his book: "If England is the motherland of football hooliganism, then a Millwall–West Ham game is the mother of all hooligan derbies. The bad blood has always been there between east and south of the river. You can go back to your forefathers. When those two teams meet, it goes beyond football. The atmosphere is a feeling of genuine hatred and uncertainty; other clubs' rival fans have long said both Millwall and West Ham have the hardest fans in England."
Both clubs have their origins in London's East End, yet following Millwall's move further south of the river, the hostility between the two sides endured. Throughout the 70s and 80s, as hooliganism caused chaos on the terraces, tensions spiralled to even greater heights.
Devastatingly, there have been fatal consequences, starting in 1976 when Millwall supporter Ian Pratt lost his life after falling beneath a train during clashes with West Ham fans at New Cross. Shortly after, deeply troubling leaflets were handed out at Cold Blow Lane, bearing a photograph of Ian alongside the chilling message: "A West Ham fan must die next week to avenge him." Further heartbreak followed 11 years later when Terry Burns, a 19-year-old West Ham supporter, was fatally stabbed by suspected Millwall fans at Embankment Station.
Looking ahead to the fixture
Today, the West Ham and Millwall clubs' fan bases are beginning to change, much like the game itself has in recent years, so don't think it will ever be as bad as the past experiences shared with you here when the divide really was just the River Thames, but football can only hope whenever there is another cup draw or a promotion/relegation that has them in the same league or in a cup competition these two clubs aren't drawn out of the hat together because for some there will always be scores to settle, just as there were for their forefathers. Looking ahead to this weekend's fixture, West Ham will go into the match sitting top of the Championship, with Millwall four points behind them in 11th place.
