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00:00Tonight, Panorama focuses on the terrace gangs who follow one small second division club, Millwall, in London's Dockland.
00:08Deliberately, we're looking at this violence through the eyes of some of the people who cause it.
00:12And that has involved, including in our film, language you don't usually hear on television.
00:17With that warning, here is David Taylor's report.
00:22When I was young and just a boy, I asked my mother, what will it be?
00:32Will it be Arsenal? Will it be Spurs? Here's what she says to me.
00:41Millwall, Millwall! Millwall, Millwall, Millwall! Millwall, Millwall, Millwall!
00:49Supporting Millwall can be a costly business.
00:52Billy Plummer has accumulated £300 worth of fines for disorderly behaviour at football matches.
00:58He's 21, his brother Jason is 8, and already going to Millwall's home games.
01:03If Jason's not to follow in Billy's footsteps, it will take more than fines and fences to stop him.
01:12What will have to change is soccer's subculture, the basic set of values that the terrace fan adheres to.
01:22Millwall is more than a football club, it's a way of life.
01:25It offers comradeship, excitement and glory.
01:28The glory comes not from the team, but from the reputation of its supporters.
01:35Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall!
01:40We're always in the sort of second and third line, but people are frightened of us all over England.
01:46Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall!
01:50The best supporters in the lane, they go anywhere.
01:53Anyone comes down here, they get slung out, I'll tell you that now.
01:56Millwall! Millwall! Millwall!
02:05Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall! Millwall!
02:29of supporters turn up for away games. To the Terrace Gangland, they're the Millwall Boot
02:34Boys, feared and respected wherever they go, a fame infamously acquired.
02:53Like any other set of supporters, they cheer on their team, question the referee's parentage,
02:59exchange pleasantries with the police, whom they call the Old Bill, and go the opposition.
03:06But within Millwall's Terrace Army, there are divisions. At the bottom of the hierarchy
03:11are the youngsters. They call themselves the halfway line, and when it comes to aggro,
03:16they imitate their elders. But as they grow older, they have a career choice to make.
03:21Some of them graduate to treatment, they're the ones in the surgical masks. Although one
03:26of Millwall's heavy mobs, treatment don't pick fights, but they're always there when
03:30they happen.
03:34In the trench warfare of the Terraces, it's F Troop who go over the top. F Troop are the
03:40real nutters, self-confessed loonies like Harry the Dog, who go looking for fights and are
03:46seldom disappointed. The difference between F Troop and treatment was clearly illustrated
03:51when Millwall were away to Sunderland. Treatment, who will travel any distance for Millwall,
04:01made the long expensive train journey to the northeast. While F Troop, who will go anywhere
04:06for a fight, stayed in London and went down the road to Charlton. Charlton were playing Millwall's
04:18traditional enemy, Tottenham. Five minutes into the game, this happened.
04:28The papers called it a terrorist rampage. It was caused by a dozen or so of Millwall's
04:34nutters charging 2,000 Tottenham fans. Three of them ended up in court and one in hospital.
04:40You know, I mean, all the papers turned around and said there was about 100 of us. I mean,
04:46it was 12. 12, 14, wasn't it? I'd say 14 the most. The most, that's it.
04:51Went in the ground, someone shouted out Millwall. On Super Tottenham, don't know the fucking
04:55battles. A couple of hundred of them.
04:56It was hot of them. No, it's just that, see, we ate Tottenham now, they're in the second,
05:02do you know what I mean? They keep saying what they're going to do to Millwall, so they get
05:08a taste of it before they come down here. It's just to show what they're going to get
05:13when they come down here, you know? That's all it is. It's all warm up, isn't it? It's a warm
05:17up.
05:18It's a warm up when the hospital beds. Would you say the Charlton visit was a success?
05:24Yeah. Very. Very. Very. Best day of the year, is it? Best day of the season. So far, isn't it?
05:34So far.
05:35Yeah. Topsy place to come back.
05:37Not all of the drinkers in the Crown and Anchor agreed with F Troop's philosophy,
05:41or with our right to film them. What do you want? What do you want? You want to say,
05:46oh yeah, we all had a punch up? That's not what football's about, is it? It is these days.
05:53Isn't that quite a boy? It is, it is. Why? Do you go away? Do you go away? Do you
05:58go away?
05:58Do you go away, guys? No, I don't know. It's all right.
06:00When's the last away game you win? Do you ever go away?
06:04When's the last away game you win? What are you talking about away?
06:06Do you go away every week? Not every week, no.
06:09Do you have to put up all the verbal we take every week?
06:12Yeah, but why should you have to take verbal? We don't.
06:15Because I've been brought up like that. If someone has a go at me, I'll have a go at them.
06:18Yeah, oh, I agree with it. And I won't take it from a northerner.
06:21You know why? Because I won't. We won't. I won't. Would you?
06:26I've been following, I'll tell you what, I've been following these years.
06:30I've been following this club years, and I mean years.
06:33Yeah. You know what I mean? And I'm not going away but some dirty northern punts to spit all over
06:38me.
06:39If he spits all over me, I'll put a fucking white glass in his head.
06:43There's no doubt that F Troop are Millwall's crazy gang.
06:47But the comfortable assumption that they're the only ones who fight on the terraces is far from being the truth.
06:53Fighting, or rucking as it's called, is bread in the bone.
06:56And in the pubs of south-east London, it's a constant topic of conversation.
07:05All across the town, all across the night, everybody's driving away for the night.
07:11Every Thursday night in the squire in Bromley Road, treatment gathered to relive their past exploits.
07:17Distant buffers lodged in the memory, like so many pieces of shrapnel.
07:21Old vendettas endlessly repeated.
07:25Sunderland, well...
07:26Sunderland? Who went to Sunderland?
07:2850 stood at Sunderland, the tallest Millwall supporters.
07:32120 travelled.
07:3470 sat in the seats.
07:36About 40 of us stood on the terraces.
07:38Come back alive.
07:39Yeah, you know what I mean.
07:40Right, we all come back alive, didn't we?
07:42We went to the Portsmouth. We went to the Portsmouth.
07:44We went to the Portsmouth.
07:44We went to the Portsmouth.
07:45We've done nothing. They started frying bricks, bottles at us.
07:49Yeah.
07:49You hit someone back and you get a 50-pound fight.
07:51Put three in a geezer back who just bottles you.
08:06It's always the same here.
08:08Tall stories measured out by the pint.
08:11Amplified hard rock.
08:12The constant search for excitement and sensation.
08:15For anything that will make these lads' lives seem less humdrum.
08:25In such a charged atmosphere, tempers are short and physical violence easily provoked.
08:31Oh, they're down there now.
08:32Even when my bird's gone, boy, I was going to smash her in the chin.
08:35What can you say? It's not my fault, is it?
08:37No, no, it ain't your fault, Bill.
08:38I know what you made fat geezers for.
08:40I know what you did.
08:42I know what you did.
08:42Treatment's world revolves around three fixed points.
08:45Football, pub, and home.
08:47And they're never far apart.
08:50Drinking, working, and living in New Cross, within a stone's throw of Millwall's ground,
08:55Billy Plummer is a typical member of the Treatment Gang.
09:06He left school at 13, and is well aware of his limited horizons.
09:12I love me mum, you know?
09:15I love me mum.
09:16Of course, anyone loves me mum, don't they?
09:17But, er, I've never had a dad in respect of a dad.
09:21My real dad, like, left home.
09:24Well, he didn't, my mother kicked him out.
09:25Cos he used to come home and beat her up and all that, you know what I mean?
09:29Erm, the second dad.
09:32He's inside at the moment, you know?
09:38He's alright, but he's not my real dad, is he?
09:40You know?
09:41I mean, me and him have never hit it off.
09:44Just never had a chance, really, you know?
09:46A chance to fulfil my ambitions, if I've got any ambitions, like, hidden.
09:50I don't know where they are.
09:55I've had a hard life, as it happens.
09:58Compared to some guys, like yous.
10:01I've had a very hard life.
10:02I've always been brought up to raring, whereas you've been brought up in university,
10:05I've been brought up in street fighting, you know, every night.
10:09You know what I mean?
10:11I'd like to think that I could grow up,
10:13but, I mean, I wouldn't be prepared to get, like, get married, have kids,
10:17and, like, every week to worry about where the money's coming from, you know what I mean?
10:21That wouldn't be me. I'd never get married.
10:26I mean, I'd go and do my jobs here and there, and I'd get paid for them that way.
10:29Like, I don't get, I don't have to wake up in the morning and think to myself,
10:31Christ, let's hurry, I've got to go to work, you know what I mean?
10:35You know?
10:36Just as long as I've got enough money to go and see me, all that does mean.
10:41They're a shitty team, as it comes to respect of shitty teams, yeah.
10:44They've never been in the first division, they've never done nothing like that,
10:46but it's just, it's the fans, isn't it, really?
10:49It's your mates down here, your mates you rely on.
10:51They go everywhere with you, you go all through the country with them,
10:54to different clubs, and it's, you know, it's just there, terrific.
10:58They've never had nothing except their reputation, you know?
11:00Like, they've always got their reputation.
11:02Being a hard team, and they always will be a hard team.
11:05Do you mean a hard team, or hard supporters?
11:08Supporters, hard supporters.
11:09You know, you've got a load of nutters out there, really.
11:11They're all supports, they're all nutters.
11:14Have you had much trouble with the police yourself, Billy?
11:17Been in trouble a few times yet.
11:20Arrested?
11:20Yeah.
11:21And what happened to you when you went to court?
11:24Just get fined.
11:26You just get fined, or you get put away.
11:28I won't pay me fines.
11:30I mean, I have a lot of money now, but I won't pay me fines.
11:32Do you think that fines are any kind of a deterrent
11:35to lads who get out of order at football matches?
11:39Nah, they're not.
11:39How are they a deterrent? They're not a deterrent at all, are they, really?
11:42A deterrent is, er, making the geezers miss their football for Saturday.
11:48What do you think will happen to you the next time
11:49you get into trouble with the police?
11:51I don't really give a shit about it, really.
11:53I'll do time.
11:54I don't mind doing time.
11:56It's easy, innit?
11:57Doing time.
12:00You come back out and you just support me or will?
12:03You have more punch-ups and you just go back in.
12:05Don't you?
12:06And that's that.
12:08Why do you get in so many rucks, Billy?
12:10You get, erm, a lot of geese taking the piss at you at football.
12:14They turn round and they, they just, they start shouting things that you're chanting at you,
12:19you know what I mean?
12:20And you just, well, you just lose your temper.
12:22But why do you allow yourself to be provoked by the, er, other team's fans?
12:27You don't have to fight, do you?
12:29Well, what, are you going to be called a coward?
12:31You don't want people to turn around and say,
12:33what's up with him?
12:34Like, you know what I mean?
12:35He's not steaming in.
12:36Look at him over there.
12:36He's a coward.
12:37Which does happen.
12:38Why don't, er, opposing fans come to Millwall's ground?
12:42Because they're scared.
12:43When they come down to Millwall, they get battered.
12:45They get battered.
12:47Same as Tottenham would get battered when they come down to Tottenham.
12:49Because they've got too much mouth.
12:51Tottenham would go around telling everyone they're going to do Millwall.
12:53We'll let them come down and prove it.
12:59Next month's match with Tottenham is more than a London derby game.
13:03It's the only occasion on which a visiting club will bring mass support to the den.
13:08Because of Millwall's reputation, other side supporters tend to stay at home.
13:13Today, only a few courageous Blackburn Rovers fans have come to London.
13:17Some of them live to regret it.
13:20I arrived here about half past one quarter or two.
13:22We were walking down, about ten of us.
13:25We were about twenty lads run down.
13:27Here in Blackburn.
13:28Automatically, yeah, we're Blackburn fans.
13:30Next thing I knew, I was not so bloody hell out of.
13:33They hammered, they hammered hell out of me.
13:34I saw my SkyFox floor.
13:36I picked it up.
13:37There were three at the other end.
13:39So they started hitting me again.
13:40So I, I walked away automatically.
13:43So I'll have a go, come here again.
13:44There's no way I'll be here again.
13:47I'm at United, Everton, City, Liverpool, everywhere around.
13:50But not, not walking down the ground at half past one and being jumped on like that.
13:54That is pathetic as that.
13:57The crowd for the Blackburn match was less than 6,000.
14:00And the club lost much needed gate money.
14:02Whatever happens when Tottenham come down, low attendance won't be a worry.
14:13This is the Colbro Lane End, Millwall's home terrace.
14:17On past experience, it's where Tottenham's fans will make their first assault.
14:21Although today, with little at stake, it's sparsely populated, it will be well guarded for the Tottenham game.
14:28Gangs like Treatment will be there in strength to defend their traditional territory.
14:34Many parents brought their kids down.
14:36Even my brother took me down to Millwall.
14:39And the entrance we went in and where we stood is where we stood.
14:42And that is under the Colbro Lane End.
14:45If Tottenham are ejected from the Colbro Lane End,
14:48they may well be moved to what passes for a visitor's terrace at Millwall.
14:52The Ilderton Road End.
14:54Here, however, they'll encounter Millwall's nutcases like F-Truth.
14:58We'll be standing there for that precise purpose.
15:02If I want to Millwall support, I wouldn't go down the den.
15:04You're fucking mad.
15:06It's right, everyone carries a tool.
15:11If you're a visiting supporter, there's no safe standing room in the Lion's Den.
15:16Even the side terrace, which in most grounds is a neutralised zone,
15:20is guarded by the halfway line.
15:22The novices who make up in numbers for what they lack in strength.
15:26Where do you stand on the terraces?
15:28Halfway line.
15:29Halfway line.
15:29What are the biggest bends?
15:30It's the best thing.
15:32That Tottenham come in.
15:33I reckon they're going to take a run.
15:34They come up to us, but then we'll just go up and go into them.
15:37Gary Roberts is 16.
15:40A former halfway liner, he's just graduated to Treatment.
15:43Although still at school, Gary prefers to spend his time with his best friend, Mick Harris.
15:53At 27, Mick is one of Treatment's oldest members.
15:56He works as a caretaker for an experimental playgroup and is surprisingly good with children.
16:03What's that?
16:05It's a walk-in.
16:06Where does the walk-in can go?
16:08Which one's got the walk-in can?
16:10You've got the walk-in can there, haven't you?
16:12When we came back from Coventry, we had a ruck at him,
16:14because St Pank was with Bolton one of his life.
16:17As I stood there and rucked with him, he said,
16:19any man who can stand there and ruck can go to Southampton with us next week.
16:25Ever seen something going around with him.
16:26He's a great bloke.
16:29I know he should be going to school, but it's just his way here.
16:33If you've got a bit of a wild temper and no-one's supporting you,
16:36you're just going to fling out fists and feet, like, and just walk out,
16:41which he's been doing.
16:43And then he just comes down here for company, like, you know?
16:45He just comes down here because he knows me.
16:48Mick and Gary are also bound together by their allegiance to Treatment
16:52and can recite the gang's code of conduct.
16:54When police are knocking about, you don't sort of steam in
16:59and do something silly where they can have you.
17:01You use your loaf and when it's clear and you know there's going to be trouble,
17:06you've got to be there.
17:07And, as I say, to be a sort of a treatment member,
17:12you've just got to sort of stay there and stay your own pitch.
17:15If there's going to be a ruck, you stay there.
17:16And then that's only a certain few that travel away, yes.
17:21Fifty of us went to Sunderland a couple of weeks back
17:24and that is what you call a treatment mob.
17:27Gary, you're in treatment now, aren't you?
17:29Yes.
17:30Did you have to prove yourself before you were able to join the gang?
17:36Well, I stood down, rucking with Millwall and stayed there.
17:40And if we was outnumbered like 20 at 1, we had to stay there and fight like.
17:43You know what I mean?
17:44In all that life, huh?
17:47So you proved that you were a good rucker?
17:49Well, I wouldn't say I'm a good rucker, but I wouldn't run.
17:53I'd stay there and fight and help them out.
17:54Is he good, Mick?
17:56Yeah, any blokes, any blokes that don't run and you're away from home
18:00and stand there and have a good fight is a good Millwall supporter.
18:04But is that really what football's about?
18:06We know it's not about fighting, but the thing is,
18:10as you go up to see a football match, a few just happen to be there.
18:16It's the other adults, as you're saying about me,
18:19that I'm an adult and I've got a job with kids, everything like that.
18:25It's adults fighting me as well.
18:27And I am just going to stand here and let them do it.
18:30So soccer hooligans are not 14, 15-year-olds?
18:33No.
18:34I travelled up to Blackburn last year when so-called hooligans, 30 years old.
18:41And I still remember some of them faces that give me a hammering at Blackburn
18:44some six, seven years ago.
18:46And they're blokes.
18:48They're not just 14, 15-year-old kids.
18:50It's blokes as well.
18:51So anyone who goes on the terraces has got to be prepared for trouble?
18:55Of course they have.
18:56It all depends where they stand on the terrace in.
18:58If they'd like to stand on the terrace in but somewhere else.
19:01But no matter where you stand, you're going to get trouble
19:04because as soon as you shut out, for instance,
19:06if you're away at Sunday and Mill will score a goal,
19:09you shut out, Millwall like them one-up.
19:11You get people having a go in rubbish and all that game.
19:15And that's what you get.
19:17And people just don't stand for that.
19:19Mick, when are you going to outgrow football and Millwall?
19:24When are you going to settle down and get married?
19:27Settle down and get married?
19:29Well, getting married, you're restricted
19:31and you can't travel away with a team you love and love like, you know?
19:36And I was going to get married but I knocked it on the head.
19:41All over Millwall.
19:42Were you going to get married to Lorraine?
19:45Yes, that's correct.
19:47And we was arguing...
19:50I've done myself a favour.
19:51We was arguing over football.
19:53She liked Chelsea and I'm a fanatic Millwall supporter.
19:55But I just couldn't go through with it and I ended up sodding up north to watch Millwall.
20:00And I left there waiting.
20:01On your wedding day?
20:03On the birth of a wedding day, yeah.
20:05Because we were going to get the licence out, get there and do it.
20:08She was preparing it and I didn't turn up.
20:10You went to watch Millwall instead?
20:12I went to watch Millwall.
20:13No greater love have any more.
20:20This fanaticism has deep social roots. Millwall is in the heart of London's
20:25Dockland and though many of the docks have closed and the Dockers moved away
20:29old allegiances die hard. To the Dockers football was a religion and Millwall the
20:34only true faith. What's wrong with Millwall is the image the club has got. To
20:42approach it is to feel a sense of grim foreboding the very names are chilling
20:47the address cold blow lane the ground itself the den more of a threat than an
20:53invitation. Millwall is trying to put matters right every Sunday morning they
21:03run a street market it makes money for the club and stresses Millwall's
21:07community spirit. The club also hold open days at which Millwall's fans can
21:18meet the players this is one of manager Gordon Jago's many innovations. I'm
21:24trying to bring about a good relationship between the fan and the player I think
21:28that the secret of success in any sport is an involvement with its people whether
21:33they be people on the terraces or whether they be people who pay anything from a
21:37hundred pounds upwards for a season ticket. See a football club mustn't cut
21:43itself off from its supporters you've got to have as we have done today we have had
21:49broad shoulders because we've got to get some criticism but you've got to get
21:54involved you've got to go and face them meet with them tell them what you're
21:57trying to do listen to their arguments listen to their criticisms because you
22:02are very much a part of their life and I think you have a responsibility. The
22:05interesting thing to me is you see people say we'll go out and buy Center
22:10Forward. A I've got to make sure and B I've got to get the money. This is the
22:16problem now the only way we can take more money is get more people here and I
22:20tell you one of the problems that we don't get people here for example when we
22:23played Crystal Palace and Charlton we didn't get a Crystal Palace or Charlton
22:28support and they don't come here why hold on hold on you're right they don't
22:36come here because they say the fear of trouble Millwall's got a reputation now
22:41this is where you fellas can help all of us you know when they're with Jago the
22:48Millwall lads are very respectful there was no butter wouldn't melt in their mouths
22:56but back in their own familiar haunts the mood quickly changes once again
23:01they're the tough guys the pool room hustlers calling the shots as they see
23:05them and Gordon Jago appears as just another figure of authority who doesn't
23:10understand it
23:11think that he's never been on the terrace the same as are they and all the rest of
23:13them they sitting there silly little officers saying this that any others what
23:16we're not supposed to do they don't go out and see to see the grounds do they
23:21hey when you were talking to him on Sunday Billy and you didn't say that then to him
23:24no because I've got the hump now I've just lost the pool and everything else and your fucking team's
23:28lost 2-0 they're unusual I must say
23:32no that's what makes me sick it's these guys like Alan Ardacre and all these right
23:39they sit in their offices saying you can't do this and you can't do that but where are they when
23:43we're
23:43of a Saturday afternoon no matter what I say when I meet them and we've had get
23:48togethers with them at supporters club meetings and so on and you say look cut
23:52it out we don't want that you know you're spoiling it for all of us and
23:57unfortunately you know one cannot seem to change them this is their attitude and
24:03you know we have to find ways and means of stopping to all
24:06what's the thing you can do just turn around and say Merlin and say all right you
24:10ain't gonna come down here there's one club you never change Millwalls
24:14same as you'll never change West Ham or you'll never change Chelsea you'll always have fun
24:17every football club in the country's got hooligans
24:20people are getting to the stage now where they're absolutely fed up with it and they
24:23say okay because the answer to me is is one thing only if I could have a 25,000 or
24:2920,000 all-seed stadium here and all sold as a season ticket sale to Millwall
24:35supporters that would suit me fine I wouldn't wish to I know it deprives
24:39shall we say the opportunity for visitors to see their team in action here
24:42but if it's one way to stop confrontation then that's what I would do if Jago
24:49succeeds in banishing Millwalls terrace hooligans there's one organization that
24:53would welcome them with open arms the National Front is having a lot of success
24:59in recruiting football fans not only from Millwall but from many inner city clubs
25:04companies as always the front's basic appeal is racist I don't think anyone is
25:12sort of like really 100% I don't kill anyone says you know I don't think anyone is
25:17actually 100% for the NF but and then again you've got to think like I mean we're all
25:23gonna like sort of everyone here sort of works and all this cover and then like you
25:27have that son you have a reading now and in there like you see there's an Asian family just come
25:33up a
25:33banana boat in an hotel for about 300 pound a week who's the most it's got to be us isn't
25:39it
25:42racism apart what the Millwall lads really like about the National Front is the opportunity it
25:47provides for a good ruck at the Lewisham March at least a hundred of them turned out to heckle and
25:53Harris the anti-front demonstrators I'll go on them yeah because like uh all these yeah yeah because
26:03all these go and me me mates go on it when I'll go there you know I'll go with all
26:07these like it's
26:08all right it's a lot of them you know what'd you go for huh what'd you go for for the
26:12fight what do you
26:13mean course it's for the fight what do you think every National Front March they have is for a fight
26:18we will recruit patriotic pro-British youngsters whether or not they are physically robust because
26:25we need everybody in the National Front we are in addition to that very glad to recruit youngsters
26:31who are of a robust disability disposition and who are willing and able to defend our legal
26:37activities from communist assault where necessary disturbingly the leadership of the National Front
26:43seem more prepared to understand the soccer hooligan psychology than our football's official bodies
26:49I think there's a lot you can do with a soccer hooligan I think that people resort to mindless
26:55violence and vandalism because they have not been given by society a point and a meaning to their lives
27:03people do like to identify they do like to associate themselves with something which is big and
27:08glorious and noble which they the little individual can associate themselves with and feel proud that
27:15they somehow belong and we feel that the very very fanatical adulation by supporters with their
27:24particular club is a sort of sublimated patriotism so it's a case of Millwall today and National Front
27:30we hope so today it's still Millwall there are times when Gordon Jago's vision of a football club
27:44being a happy family almost seems possible for all its apparent hardness Millwall is a friendly
27:50hospitable club in its own working-class cockney way to strengthen its links with the fans Millwall runs its
27:59own supporters club those who join are entitled to cheap travel to away games applicants are fitted
28:05out with ID cards which they have to carry with them and anyone who gets into serious trouble with
28:11the police is liable to have his membership revoked for Millwall's away game with Bristol Rovers supporters
28:25club secretary Pauline McGrath has chartered a train from British Rail to keep order during the
28:31journey Pauline has recruited a number of stewards some of whom like Mick Harris belong to the treatment
28:36gang so Barry and right Mickey Saturday morning at Paddington and Millwall supporters are in good heart in spite of
28:50the
28:50team's failure to win any of their last seven matches 214 supporters make the journey to Bristol where football is
28:57concerned hope springs eternal
29:06charter trains are one way of curbing the soccer hooligans since they first came into operation two years ago the
29:13cost of the damage to British Rail property has been reduced from a hundred thousand pounds to next to nothing
29:19not that Millwall supporters were ever keen on vandalism
29:22they've got standards I mean they're not like your United's and your Chelsea's that go around kicking and cripples in
29:27wheelchairs and things like that
29:29if there's a bystander here like a woman with a baby they'd help that woman and the child out of
29:35the way and then carry on with the racking
29:38there are railway police on the train but they keep out of sight and leave it to the stewards
29:43the atmosphere is free and easy the lads while away the time in gambling drinking and talking about football
29:51well we always do try to charter trains when we travel away it's much easier to get all the supporters
29:58together on one train if you don't charter a train they'll travel anyway and they'll travel on several service runs
30:04and obviously it isn't good for the club it isn't good for our reputation
30:07we find if we've got them all on one train we know who they are and we can control them
30:13unfortunately not all of Millwall supporters travelled on the train half of them made their own way to Bristol
30:19including F Troop who hired a coach for the occasion
30:22Bobby the wolf, Harry the dog, Matt, Pat and Winkle piled into the bus which at three pounds a head
30:27was a pound cheaper than the train
30:29the train
30:37everybody knows
30:40everybody knows
30:40they'll go
30:41they'll go
30:42they'll come
30:43they'll come
30:44they'll come
30:45they'll all come down
30:47today
30:48they'll all
30:51come down
30:52soon again
30:56F Troop were not just going for the match, but for a night out on the town.
31:00They didn't intend to leave Bristol until two o'clock in the morning.
31:03This contravenes the official guidelines laid down by the Minister of Sport, Dennis
31:08Howell.
31:09Coaches are required to leave town within an hour of the final whistle, and they're not
31:14supposed to carry any alcohol.
31:21It is perhaps hardly surprising that the coach operator should be unaware of these rules
31:25when clubs like Millwall are also in the dark about them.
31:29In actual fact, I've never seen any guidelines.
31:31I don't know anything about them.
31:34We don't, you know, you've caught me there because I don't know anything about any guidelines.
31:38We just run our way to travel on our own common sense and experience.
31:43When the Millwall train reached Bristol, the fans were escorted to the ground by the local
31:48police force.
31:49The police had a hundred men on duty for the game, a tribute, if you like, to Millwall's
31:54reputation.
31:58To avoid this reception committee, F Troop intended to be dropped off in town so they
32:03could invade the Bristol Rovers' end.
32:05Well, we want to do a few gazes out there, mate.
32:08We're the F Troop, see what I mean?
32:10We'll have a round.
32:11We'll go to football.
32:12And this is it.
32:14Oh, look, too bad, Harry.
32:15Is that more important than the football?
32:17No, that is more important than the football.
32:18Well, it's about equal.
32:20To me, we're not close to New England.
32:22We're going there.
32:23You look, we've got no boots or nothing.
32:25You know?
32:25No scarves.
32:26We go there, no scarves.
32:27We never wear our colours, nothing.
32:28We go there.
32:30If we're going to Bristol Wind, we'll go there for a drink.
32:32They know we're Londoners.
32:34They can tell you're Londoners.
32:35You know?
32:3515 times smaller.
32:37Yeah, exactly.
32:38You know what I mean?
32:39Give us credit.
32:40We go there, like, and you've always got that one northerner
32:43who wants to have a go at you.
32:44So, like, if they have a go at you, like, you're going to have a go back.
32:47It's not being an hooligan.
32:49Unfortunately for F Troop, their coach broke down.
32:52But there were other coaches and other nutcases.
32:56And the schedule rough took place.
33:05Without F Troop, the Millwall invaders got short shrift from the home fans.
33:09And then the old bill waded in.
33:19Penned at the opposite end, Treatment and the rest of Millwall Supporters Club
33:23could only offer vocal encouragement.
33:25This is what is known as Millwall Aggro.
33:42The tide of battle turned against Millwall's hooligans.
33:45It was all over in five minutes.
33:53Four arrests were made and numerous troublemakers weeded out,
33:57including Harry the Dog, who, having hitchhiked to the ground,
34:00had staged an unsuccessful solo attack on the Bristol End,
34:04before being escorted to the Millwall Terrace.
34:17It was a bad day for the visitors.
34:19The weather was bad, the game was bad, and the unkindest cut of all,
34:25Millwall lost to a team Tottenham and massacred 9-0 a fortnight earlier.
34:30Treatment professed themselves to be pissed off and as sick as a parrot.
34:38But they'll all be back next week.
34:45At Millwall, as at most football clubs, violence is only one side of the coin.
34:50On the other side are good humour, companionship and a sense of belonging,
34:54which for these lads would be hard to replace.
34:57Of course, measures must be taken to curb the excesses of soccer violence.
35:01But if those measures drive the Terrace fans out of football,
35:05the cure may prove worse than the disease.
35:12That was David Taylor reporting.
35:15We want to thank Millwall Club for their help.
35:17Alone among several clubs we approached, they were willing to cooperate with us.
35:22Millwall, in fact, is going some way to meeting the problem of violence constructively.
35:25They're hoping to build a sports centre with the idea
35:28of diverting the youngsters' energies from fighting to active sport.
35:33And that may be closer to a real solution to the problem of football violence than putting up fences.
35:38That's one of the things we were going to discuss tonight,
35:41if it hadn't been for the firemen's strike.
35:43That's all from Panorama this week.
35:45Till next Monday. Good night.