Day of the Dockers
Saturday, 23rd January 2021
All Tyrone could see pulling into the Olympic Stadium was the swarms of hi-viz yellow jackets of the Police.
The squad had made a point of hanging a Millwall flag in the window of the team coach on their way to the stadium for today’s match.
It would be fair to say, it got the reaction it desired as stones and copper coins pelted against the windows by fans donning claret and sky blue shirts.
“Don’t worry, driver, I’ll cover the repairs,” Tyrone said, grabbing the coach driver on the shoulder.
“You won’t have to if you beat these bastards today, I’ll tell you!” he responded with a chuckle.
Muffled swearing was all that surrounded the coach as it made its way through to the secure parking area.
Tyrone got off the coach first and waited by the door as the players left, patting every one of them on the back as they made their way past him.
Even as he headed inside the ground, Tyrone could hear the now distant chants about a deceased Millwall fan in 1976, who died after falling out of a train during a brawl with West Ham fans at New Cross railway station. “West Ham boys, we’ve got brains, we throw Millwall under trains!” they carried on.
It was the most hostile and volatile environment that Tyrone could have wished for. He finally felt back in the game for good.
It didn’t take much from Tyrone to get the players amped up before the match. He barely said a word in the pre-match teamtalk as the players seemed to pump each other up.
West Ham’s soul had been sucked out with the demolition of the Boleyn Ground, replaced with a newly constructed multi-purpose horror of a modern football ground. That didn’t stop the noise today, though. Fans had waited years for this fixture and they weren’t prepared to let anything get in the way of getting at the opposition.
Shortly after the roar of the kick-off, Millwall fans responded to West Ham chants with the iconic anthem.
”No one likes us, no one likes us,
No one likes us, we don’t care!
We are Millwall, super Millwall,
We are Millwall from The Den!”
No one likes us, we don’t care!
We are Millwall, super Millwall,
We are Millwall from The Den!”
Although today was all about the action from the stands and the atmosphere, Millwall weren’t doing half bad on the pitch either, holding out at 0-0 for half-time.
By the 68th minute, the inevitable barrage of noise flooded the stadium as Said Benrahma netted the opener for West Ham. Tyrone felt sick, but he couldn’t show weakness on the touchline with a full 57,000 bearing down on him.
Shortly after, a second barrage rained down on the pitch from the West Ham fans as Michail Antonio threaded an inch-perfect pass to Lanzini who duly smashed it past the helpless Bialkowski to make it 2-0.
Henry took a seat in the dugout. He felt miserable as his team hoofed the ball up to the center circle for a third time this game.
Matty Pearson ran down the line before turning back to find Ryan Leonard in space. The midfielder smacked a ball forward in the air. Tyrone noticed Bradshaw’s run immediately and he got the better of Declan Rice with relative ease.
Tyrone rushed out to his technical area to witness this one-on-one as Tom Bradshaw beared down on goal. With what seemed like a toe poke, he found the net and Henry went mental as the tie was brought back to 2-1.
Taking a brief look up to the Millwall end, all he could see was around 3,000 bodies landing on top of each other, as well as giving one-finger salutes to the opposing fans.
Despite the rush of joy, Millwall were unable to turn anything around, despite the team and Henry’s best efforts.
West Ham had won this battle, but Millwall would be back for the war, and Henry made sure he let the media know that post-match. He wanted this rivalry to be as brutal as ever under his leadership.
Tango: I certainly think I have got a good deal there. I think we could’ve pushed ourselves to get a better quality replacement with the Cooper money, but as price compared to quality, I think Raggett is a great signing.
