The New Den Stadium

MILLWALL F.C.

Millwall Football Club were established in 1885 as Millwall Rovers. Their address is The Den, Zampa Road, London SE16 3LN. Telephone 0171 232 1222 they can also be found on the web at http://www.millwallfc.co.uk
Millwall have always gained more notoriety for their supporters than for the actual team itself. It's only just over a decade since Millwall were playing in the top-flight in England with players such as Teddy Sherringham and Tony Cascarino wearing the famous Millwall lion on their chest. After a couple of seasons in the top flight it's been the steady road to decline since on the pitch. Off the pitch though the club has moved on, with the building of a new stadium down the road from the old Den. The new purpose built stadium is a 20,150 seater, but instead of seeing crowds rise like at other clubs who built new stadiums, Millwall's actually fell. Some Millwall followers found this move to a new stadium hard to swallow along with the clubs on field form.
The club derives it's name from the area that it played for the first 25 years of it's history. Until 1988 the club were the only senior London club not to have played in the top-flight. The club has won scores of awards for its activity within the community, yet is best known for it's hooligan element it attracts. The club has been shut down on many occasions since it was formed and has always had a history for crowd disorder, maybe due to the hard working class culture of South London. But though Millwall does attract it's fair share of hooligans, most of what it written in the press is blown out of proportions, whenever trouble breaks out involving Millwall fans, they are always blamed, sometimes justifiably, but quite often not.
One of Millwall's main problems attracting a big crowd is that there are too many other clubs nearby, though when they did reach Wembley recently in the Auto Windscreens Cup Final, they took around 49,000 fans to the match, if only they could attract more of these fans week in week out.
Millwall were formed in 1885 by a worker from the JT Morton Jam and Marmalade factory in West Ferry Road, on the Isle of Dogs. Most of the players for the club were Scottish due to the company's workforce being predominantly Scottish, thus they adopted the Scottish Lion rampant as the clubs motif. The clubs original name was Millwall Rovers and they played their first match at Glengall Road on the 3rd October 1885 against Fillebrook, losing 5-0. A year later Millwall moved to a pitch behind the Lord Nelson pub and launched their first competitive campaign in the East End Senior Cup. Millwall reached the final and drew 2-2 with another Scottish influenced side, Caledonians. The club turned professional in 1893 and played their matches at East Ferry Road under the new name Millwall Athletic. The club ended up moving again but crowds were small leading the club to move again, to the South London area, Bermondsey and New Cross and set up home in Cold Blow Lane but kept their name 'Millwall', with the new ground in the heavily populated area of South London crowds soon rose. 1920 saw Millwall join the Third Division in the Football League, which the club won in 1928 and spent several seasons in Division Two before slipping back down to the Third. The next 20-30 years were spent in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Divisions, but the mid 1960's saw Millwall gain two successive promotions and in 1972 they came within one point of promotion to the First Division. But after this period the club slipped back into the Third Division and it wasn't until George Graham took over that the clubs fortunes began to change for the better and in 1985 they were promoted to Division Two. After Graham left to take over Arsenal John Docherty took over at Millwall and the club signed Tony Cascarino to play alongside Teddy Sherringham.
Then in season 1987/88 Millwall played some of the best football seen at the club and gained promotion to the top-flight. There first season in the First Division was a success and they finished a very respectable tenth. Crowds were now averaging about 15,000 and then Chairman Reg Burr negotiated with the clubs then sponsor Lewisham Council about a piece of ground for the club to build a new stadium.
By 1990 Cascarino was sold to Aston Villa and the club were already doomed to relegation. Docherty was replaced by Bob Pearson who was then replaced by Bruce Rioch after only a few months. The clubs form continued to drop but the new Den preceded to be built with much resentment from Millwall's hardcore support leading to angry protests against Burr. 1992/93 season saw Millwall play their last game at Cold Blow Lane. The New Den failed to create the atmosphere of the old Den and also failed to attract other non-footballing events that Burr promised it would.
Millwall did manage to reach the First Division play-off in season 1994 but failed to reach the Premiership after being beaten in the semi-final by Derby leading to serious crowd disorder inside and outside of the New Den. Since then it's been a steady decline for Millwall and they now reside in the the Second Division.
As for matchday, visiting fans are allocated the North Stand behind the goal. It's worth sussing out any pubs in the area before entering them for obvious reasons. The Club Shop is situated between the West and North Stand. Matchday publications as well as the matchday programme are the fanzines 'No One Likes Us', 'The Lion Roars' and 'Tales from Senegal Fields'
Another recent change at Millwall is the club badge, for reasons unknown, another unpopular decision amongst the fans, some fans believe the Board believed the old badge (pictured left) was to aggressive looking.
As for a trip to London there's never a shortage of football to watch, with London being the home to something like a dozen sides. Travelling in London is no problem with the underground systems, and the main train stations in London are Paddington, Euston, King's Cross, Waterloo and Victoria, all have underground stations with the same names. London is also served by the airports Gatwick and Heathrow and Luton Airport is not far away either. Accommodation in London is easy to find but sometimes expensive, as is drinking in the capitol though the further you headout from the centre the cheaper it gets. Shopping is also a must in the capitol.
 

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