| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall – Reflections on Events at Millwall 16:48 - Aug 16 with 2581 views | HarryfromBath |
“To us the Den was home, it’s wit always good for a laugh, it’s passion often worth a goal or two. If the game was boring the crowd would amuse itself by picking on some unfortunate player, home or away, whose every desperate lunge would draw roars of derision. If the home team’s efforts were particularly fruitless, raw passion could be conjured up on the terraces.”
Eamon Dunphy’s ‘Only a Game?’ was published in 1976 and was the ‘Fever Pitch’ of its generation in its originality. Here was the life of the everyday pro laid bare, the struggles, the pressures and the setbacks laid out in sharp relief. The media focus on that small coterie of high-profile players, but here was a world which rang true for the vast majority of workaday professionals.
Dunphy played for Millwall and the diary he chronicled described what was in many ways a typical season. The Lions finished mid-table and Dunphy had departed mid-way through the campaign to drop down a league to Charlton. The Millwall supporters he played for in the mid-seventies were in his words “a unique gathering” and “a raucous dockland music hall”.
It’s hard not to be fascinated by Millwall for they a club like no other. For any fan who is curious about the deeper identity lying under the skin of any club, they are akin to catnip. The Lions are embedded in the fabric of London but at the same time sit quite apart. The pride they express in their club is more akin to the sense of community demonstrated by a small North of England club.
“If you are in the s*** having lost concentration for a minute, the good pro will often rescue you, leaving his man to make a saving tackle or what looks to the crowd like a simple interception.” Dunphy dedicated his book to ‘the Good Pro’, the type of player who will be there for his team mates whose character shines through, a trait particularly treasured by the Millwall faithful.
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Re-reading Dunphy’s book last week set the mood perfectly for this August fixture. It was a warm afternoon leaving Bath, but as the train knifed its way through the Wiltshire countryside you could see the crops turning brown and the tractors starting to gather in the harvest.
Early days, but you sensed that autumn wasn’t too far away and with it came a welter of perilous opponents lying in wait. The points we had picked up thus far were not the foundations of a play-off run but as an insurance policy, a nest-egg to tide us over for when the tempest would inevitably hit.
“Millwall was both the same and different then, a world conscious of its identity and suspicious of outsiders.” Dunphy added this comment in a preface written later. Alighting from the train at South Bermondsey, there was none of the convivial joviality found in Brentford’s quartet of taverns. Wire fences, cameras and a bespoke walkway to the away end greeted us. Strangers weren’t welcome.
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Eavesdropping on the starting line-up as we walked up to the stadium, any talk of clever formations or systems was out the window. It was a question of ‘Who have we got?’. and ‘How could we best fit them into a workable team?’ I imagined the conversation taking place before the game with Mick, Terry and the players…
“Right then, Didzy and Joey are up front. Freddie, you go alongside Jonas on the left. Waggy, can you cover on the right in front of Dominic? Wardy, you go in the middle with Skusey and we’ll see how long you last and Jordan — can you go alongside Luke at the back? He will pick up Morison and you will have to do your best with Gregory. We have Danny to come on if anyone is knackered.”
In this context, anything we could get from this game would be a bonus. It wasn’t so much 4-4-2 as an old school 4-2-4 and it was clear that this could be high-scoring, not just because we had such an attacking line-up and the shape, but also because there were so many unfamiliar partnerships which are fundamental for a conventional 4-4-2 to work well. Misunderstandings could play a major role.
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Within a minute of the kick-off it proved to be true. A first Lions attack, some momentary defensive confusion and Jed Wallace was on hand to put them ahead. In hindsight, such an early goal set the tone because what followed what little short of remarkable.
Dominic Iorfa intercepted the ball and threaded it through to Joey Garner. Iorfa himself bombed in into the box, rather like the Lancasters in the Dambusters raid drawing enemy fire while Garner let rip a shot of some violence which ricocheted off a defender and flew into the net. We were level.
It’s worth commenting on Iorfa here, for he is growing into his role on the right. His athleticism we all knew about from his Wolves days, but he is starting to synchronise with his colleagues and he also has a superb knack of playing a precise small pass that can often lead to mayhem at the far end of the pitch. This balance of industry and a clever footballing brain sits well with our style of play.
As for Garner, well. I first saw him playing against us at Preston and he was a one-man sideshow. Every so often a player, an Eric Cantona, pops up who understands the drama of a football game while also playing their part in a footballing sense. Joey is theatre. He revels in the midfield challenge which allows him to take small chunks out of opponents. He is the absolute master of disruption.
Joey unhinged Barnsley’s defender on Saturday and it was hilarious last night watching Millwall’s manager ranting from the touchline after half-an-hour at another slightly wayward Garner foul. You can see why Mick loves him, an old-school garrulous forward not afraid to cause trouble. The thing is that he also causes trouble with the ball. He is a clinical finisher and good at working with a partner.
“The referee’s giving everything isn’t he?” Both teams’ supporters had talked before the game about playing out from the back more often but that had long gone out the window. This was full-blooded English 4-4-2 football, a ridiculously imperfect and open battle with chances offered at both ends and players getting stuck in. The referee was whistling because he often had no other choice.
Millwall had looked the likelier side to score but the manner of our second goal showed how clinical we were. Ward carved an opening on the left have been put through by Garner. He then fired in a low cross which Waghorn rifled home, having times his run to perfection leaving his defender flat footed. Having started to take control of the game, the hosts were undone by a moment of quality.
Ward and Skuse did an effective job cancelling out George Saville and Shaun Williams in the heart of the battle. This was vital, because this pair balance the Millwall team and regulate so much of their tempo and pattern of play. They were invariably in the right place at the right time and while Ward was the more naturally inventive player, Skuse is trying to work on linking our attacking play more.
“We couldn’t clear the bloody ball away.” The lead wasn’t to last, for another goalmouth scramble led to George Saville’s shot hitting the woodwork and Aiden O’Brien propelling it somehow into the goal. Lions had been digging O’Brien out but had said he was a good finisher. Throughout the tie I couldn’t work out why Millwall focussed on aerial play when they were such a threat on the deck.
“It’s much more entertaining this year, although we can’t defend for toffee.” The two goals stoked what was now a febrile atmosphere coursing around the ground. The play was also hectic and error strewn. A poor goal-kick by Millwall’s keeper going straight into touch and Skuse miscuing the ball out of play from the resulting throw-in typified how the game was being played.
Millwall were aiming for Steve Morison who by now was in a no-holds-barred battle with Chambers, while we were looking to hit them on the counter. With the more clinical strikers on the pitch, this played into our hands. Garner and Waghorn nearly combined from one fine move but the alchemist in the middle of all of this was David McGoldrick, his calmness and tenacity creating our third goal.
We had no right to score it. Garner played Didzy in and he somehow outmuscled the peppery Lions’ left-back to win the ball in the box. He evaded one challenge and drew the keeper out before setting up Waghorn for the easiest of finishes. Waghorn, who by now was getting pelters from the home crowd, had a terrific game and contributed as much in supporting Iorfa as he did on the attack.
Be in no doubts that McGoldrick is back. He is proving to be such a foil for Waghorn and especially Garner. There was one moment later in the game when a move broke down and you could see the pair of them laughing and smiling to each other as whatever idea they had didn’t quite happen. They balance each other technically and temperamentally. You truly are only as good as your strikers.
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Half time then and everyone needed it. This madness couldn’t go on and Mick knew as much. We now had a lead which needed protecting. It was really another insurance policy for Millwall had options on the bench, the big Tom Elliott, the crossing of Shane Ferguson and the energy of Fred Odeyinma. A par-score for them would be four and we had little proven experience to call upon.
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Once the second-half got going, it was clear that Mick’s half-time team-talk had included something about shape and structure, for we were being more disciplined in our two-lines-of-four and trying to contain the increasing aerial launches from the hosts into our box. We were keeping our shape and dealing with whatever they threw at us, always looking to hit them with a counter-attack.
Apart from the goals, Bart had a quiet first half, but there were two moments after the break which reminded us of how much we love him. A decent shot from O’Brien on Millwall’s left was palmed away for a corner and he grabbed a deflected long-range Saville shot before it rolled over the line. It’s worth adding that his beaming grin after the final whistle was worth the admission money alone.
The game was still being played in an open, albeit more controlled manner, but Millwall were now growing in ascendancy. An eternal series of corners were fended away but their increasing energy and urgency was forcing us to dig deep and bringing out the character of the side. We were trying to take the sting out of the game, taking our time and in Garner’s case picking up a delaying caution.
On came the Millwall reinforcements just as I had feared and they were now playing for set-pieces to capitalise on Ferguson delivery and Elliott’s sheer size. The aerial stuff we could handle, but the goalmouth scrambles were problematic. It was from one of these that we saw a mess of bodies and the net ripple as Elliott forced the ball home. It had been coming and the odds were now against us.
The place erupted and it struck me just how this place at full capacity would test the character of any team. At one stage in the second half they started up a menacing sinister monotone sound which reverberated unnervingly around the stadia. It was accompanied by the odd and amusing sight of several hundred Lions simultaneously giving us w*nker hand-signals in the stand to our right.
Millwall fancied their chances and in no time we were back in the first half again, back to the manic chaotic football which aged us earlier in the evening. However, and rather like the famous win at Watford a few years earlier, this open football may have given Millwall a small chance of adding a fourth but it also effectively increased our odds even more readily of doing the same thing.
Earlier in the second half, we had broken the Millwall siege and won a few threatening set-pieces which caused the hosts no end of trouble. Chambers had gone close from a corner and Garner had a free header to a ball fed in which was just too high. It still didn’t occur to me that we might retake the lead when we were awarded a dangerous freekick after Elliott had clumsily brought Ward down.
One last hurrah. In came the ball from Ward and Jordan Spence somehow rose to head it home. Cue complete and utter mayhem in the away end, joyful pandemonium and an unleashing of unbridled elation. After the grimness and despondency of Nottingham Forest at the end of last season, here we were bearing witness to the birth of Mick’s second Town team in all of its resplendent glory.
The referee helped our cause in the moments after the goal by taking the heat out of the game and having a conference with the fourth official. Little has been said about Spence last night but he was an unlikely but absolute hero. He had a very difficult task playing out of position and dealing with the dangerous Lee Gregory but he showed huge character and it was fitting that he scored the winner.
There was still time for Millwall to twist the story yet again, but one dangerous freekick hit the wall and a header from a corner speared wide. When the full-time whistle finally sounded, the away end erupted with a defiant chorus of ‘Ipswich till I die” and several Millwall players sank to their knees. It had been enthralling, exhausting and — ultimately - heroic.
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Character. There’s that word. It seeped through the play-off team three years ago and it is back and in abundance. There was a strength of character in last night’s side, from the obvious heroes to the players such as Freddie Sears and Jonas Knudsen who were diligent and industrious not letting their team-mates down. It was a triumph built on the solid foundation of Eamon Dunphy’s ‘Good Pros’.
As the team strolled over to inhale their richly-deserved ovation, the greatest of all our Good Pros arrowed in with his arms spread wide to give us all the mother of all fist-pumps. How could we ever have considered losing Luke Chambers last season? He was a warrior, leader, unbreakable force in last night’s victory, giving nothing to the taller Steve Morison while protecting Spence faithfully.
There had been a moment in the first half when he hurt his ankle and there were 1,500 or so of us all thinking ‘Please God No’. He shook it off and went on to give a virtuoso display fending off the dangerous Millwall attack in the most hostile of atmospheres. It was a privilege to witness and he relished the ‘One f***ing Chambers’ chant in his honour as the players trooped off the pitch.
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Standing in the calm on the platform at South Bermondsey and looking at the lights of London, it struck me that Millwall’s Neil Harris had screwed up massively. He tried to take advantage of what he saw as an advantage in height and physique, while his players showed that they had the technical ability to hurt us on playing on the grass. If he plays to the side’s strengths they will do well this year.
As for us, it’s beyond wonderful to look at the league table and see the money currently propping us up. I know that none of us are kidded, though. Absurdly brilliant as this start to the season has been, we know what is coming. We had three winnable games to kick our campaign off and have taken full advantage of this fortunate twist. Given where we have come from, it’s enough to savour the view.
I know that he caused us no end of frustration last season, but the final hero in last night’s drama is our manager. To construct that victory out of the bare bones of a squad and is the most stressing of venues is a testament to his judgement of both players and tactics, his ability to motivate and win the trust of his squad and navigate them through what at times last night felt like a firestorm.
A good friend who played semi-professional football for Wycombe in their Isthmian League days in the sixties and seventies once said to me that a player cannot conceal their true character in the heat of battle. We were discussing Luis Suarez and how important trust can be on a football pitch. It is clear as day that the trust being built in this side will be vital in seeing us through this campaign.
There was a mad dash to make the last train from Paddington after we had been sensibly held back by the Old Bill to let the home fans disperse. Sitting on a near-empty train as we sliced our way back west, the happiness and relief keeping me company had nothing to do with alcohol. It was that we have a new team now, we have much less to fear and it will be fun seeing just what it can achieve.
[Post edited 16 Aug 2017 17:03]
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| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall — Reflections on Events at Millwall on 17:00 - Aug 16 with 2443 views | Heathlander |
Stirling work Harry, you have been busy.
If you don't mind me asking what age are you? That was a splendidly well written piece of work. |  | | |
| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall — Reflections on Events at Millwall on 17:03 - Aug 16 with 2429 views | Bobbychase |
| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall — Reflections on Events at Millwall on 17:00 - Aug 16 by Heathlander |
Stirling work Harry, you have been busy.
If you don't mind me asking what age are you? That was a splendidly well written piece of work. |
As everyone who meets up regularly with the Bristol and Bath branch knows, Harry is 23, fresh out of university but last season aged him a little. |  |
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| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall — Reflections on Events at Millwall on 17:04 - Aug 16 with 2418 views | PJH |
A wonderful read Harry thank you.
I have witnessed some remarkable games* in my approaching 60 years of following our Club and last night will count high on the list.
The atmosphere in our stand was as good as it has been for quite some time and I think that there are genuine reasons for believing that with us united both on and off the pitch that "We" can achieve something significant this time around.
*Including THAT one at the original Den. |  | | |
| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall — Reflections on Events at Millwall on 10:37 - Aug 17 with 1614 views | Bad_Boy_Mark |
A superb piece of work and some wonderful observations!
First class! |  | | |
| A Night at the Raucous Dockland Music-Hall — Reflections on Events at Millwall on 11:00 - Aug 17 with 1573 views | IP33 |
Awesome read again Harry!
Sitting on a near-empty train as we sliced our way back west, the happiness and relief keeping me company had nothing to do with alcohol. It was that we have a new team now, we have much less to fear and it will be fun seeing just what it can achieve.
Got me all goosebumpy!
COYB |  | | |
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