This time last year

[Chico Hamilton III]

Depressing reading. My memories of the game are that it was freezing in that cage after the final whistle, the 3 minute train journey to South Bermondsey from London Bridge where me, Pat and another mate were the only Villa fans on a jam-packed, standing room only train full of Millwall. And taking 2 hours for me to get home, 3 miles away.

Millwall 2 Aston Villa 1: Lions' Cup glory overshadowed by bottle shame
Sam Cunningham
689 words
25 January 2013
22:04
Mail Online
DAMONL
English
© 2013 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

Millwall's FA Cup tie with Aston Villa was held up last night when home fans threw bottles at a linesman.

The trouble flared early in the second half after Mark Scholes had flagged for a free kick in Villa's favour. He stepped on to the pitch to avoid the first couple of bottles that landed, but when he returned to his position more rained down.

Referee Neil Swarbrick held up the game while around 20 policemen rushed to the area to restore calm.

Millwall finished up winning the game thanks to John Marquis' late winnerafter Danny Shittu's first half header had levelled Darren Bent's goal.

A fragile Aston Villa side were fed to the Lions in the fourth round of the FA Cup as they succumbed to a late John Marquis winner at Millwall.

Following their Capital One Cup exit three nights ago to npower League Two outfit Bradford, the last thing Paul Lambert's side needed was a tricky FA Cup tie against more lower-league opposition.

Darren Bent was recalled by Lambert and opened the scoring for the Barclays Premier League strugglers, but the pressure continues to mount on the former Norwich boss as headers from Danny Shittu and Marquis sealed a well-deserved win for Millwall.

Sadly, the fantastic result for Kenny Jackett's side was slightly marred when a section of home fans began throwing missiles on to the pitch early in the second half.

Villa started like a team under pressure and looked nervy in possession, with Millwall only able to fire in a couple of harmless long-range efforts.

Lambert's side seemed to shake off their early worries and went ahead in the 22nd minute through Bent. Fabian Delph robbed Liam Feeney of possession and Andreas Weimann capitalised, running on to the ball before forcing David Forde into action for the first time.

The Lions' goalkeeper could only palm Weimann's effort into the path of Bent, whose miskicked effort crept over the line to give the beleaguered top-flight side the lead.

The goal did not act as a calming influence on the Villa players, though, as they nearly conceded a quick equaliser when Shittu headed on to the roof of the net from a corner.

The lesson was not learnt, however, and just five minutes after falling behind the hosts were level, as James Henry's corner found Shittu at the back post and the Millwall skipper rose to power a header past Shay Given.

The equaliser led to the nerves creeping back into Villa's game and meant the npower Championship promotion hopefuls went in level at the break.

A couple of set-pieces early in the second half again tested the visitors' resolve, and Feeney came close to putting Millwall ahead when he fired just wide following a corner before the hosts' momentum was brought to a halt by their own supporters.

The game was stopped for five minutes just before the hour-mark due to a disturbance amongst Millwall fans in one corner of the Dockers Stand, with several bottles thrown in the direction of the assistant referee Mark Scholes after he awarded a free-kick to Villa.

Once play had resumed it was Millwall who were once again on the front-foot, with Villa seemingly sapped of all confidence.

Shittu epitomised Millwall's drive as he marshalled his backline with his no-frills style of defending.

Villa substitute Barry Bannan arrowed in a shot that Forde again decided to push away but this time the ball bounced to safety.

The tie looked set for a replay at Villa Park until Millwall striker Marquis headed Adam Smith's cross on to the bar before reacting quickest to nod home the rebound.

The earlier incident from the Millwall fans meant their side had to negotiate six minutes of stoppage time before becoming the first name in the hat for round five, but they did so with relative ease to leave Lambert suffering one of his worst weeks in management
 

[Ads]

I share your pain Chico. I had driven down from Penrith and ended up not getting back home to the North West until around 3am because of the snow and of course, being locked in that cage after the game.

Only time I can ever recall going nuts at our players at the final whistle.

[frank]

Depressing reading. My memories of the game are that it was freezing in that cage after the final whistle, the 3 minute train journey to South Bermondsey from London Bridge where me, Pat and another mate were the only Villa fans on a jam-packed, standing room only train full of Millwall. And taking 2 hours for me to get home, 3 miles away.

It was a dreadful night: the Villa performance, the crowd hostility and then being penned in as we used to be in the 80's. I miss very few games in a season but if we'd been relegated I wouldn't have gone to Millwall (or, for similar reasons, St Andrews)

[Dave Clark Five]

The coach that we were on was severely delayed, by getting lost, so our pre-match drinking was curtailed. The other coach in our 'convoy' got lost and Millwall tried to get on it.
A couple of them were in our end and this led to trouble at half time.
Some of our fans got a good beating for pissing up Millwall fans cars.

[SoccerHQ]

How can it be this time last year whem the date is Jan 25th?!

Surely this time last year was the sunday lunchtime after the Albion 2-2 draw?

[Chico Hamilton III]

How can it be this time last year whem the date is Jan 25th?!

Surely this time last year was the sunday lunchtime after the Albion 2-2 draw?

Fuck me, I didn't mean to the exact minute. Feel free to submit your own contributions to this thread.

[Dave Clark Five]

How can it be this time last year whem the date is Jan 25th?!

Surely this time last year was the sunday lunchtime after the Albion 2-2 draw?

I think we had roast beef that day.

[B36 Villa]

Five of us got to London Bridge about 12ish to have a bloody good drink. Had a few around there when another mate rung us and said he was in The Britannia by the monument. Popped in there about 4.30 and it was full of Millwall in there who were singing anti villa songs to put it nicely. We kept our heads down and had a few in there. Iv since been told that The Brittania is one of there main pubs.

As Chico said, the journey to the ground was horrible and felt like it took about half hour with the amount of massive blokes who seemed to hate everything about Villa/Birmingham. In the ground i seen a few blokes walk in just before kick off who were covered in blood, apparently there min bus got attacked. I went down for a beer at about 35 mins and seen the aftermath of a brawl as there was a big gang of Villa going out at the big load of Old Bill by the turnstiles.

I was to pissed to remember people saying we would be locked in and went downstairs after the winning goal and had to listen to the crowd noise for the 6 minutes added on. They kept us in that long that i missed the last train by 2 minutes from Marylebone at 23.10. Then had to run from Euston Square to Euston and thought i was gonna collapse. Made it with 3 minutes to spare to get the 23.30 last train home. Although had to have a row with the police as he would let us on with Marylebone tickets. Got back in to bed at 2.45am.

I wasnt that bothered about going out as i was still fuming about the Bradford game 3 days earlier.

[Dave Clark Five]

Five of us got to London Bridge about 12ish to have a bloody good drink. Had a few around there when another mate rung us and said he was in The Britannia by the monument. Popped in there about 4.30 and it was full of Millwall in there who were singing anti villa songs to put it nicely. We kept our heads down and had a few in there. Iv since been told that The Brittania is one of there main pubs.

As Chico said, the journey to the ground was horrible and felt like it took about half hour with the amount of massive blokes who seemed to hate everything about Villa/Birmingham. In the ground i seen a few blokes walk in just before kick off who were covered in blood, apparently there min bus got attacked. I went down for a beer at about 35 mins and seen the aftermath of a brawl as there was a big gang of Villa going out at the big load of Old Bill by the turnstiles.

I was to pissed to remember people saying we would be locked in and went downstairs after the winning goal and had to listen to the crowd noise for the 6 minutes added on. They kept us in that long that i missed the last train by 2 minutes from Marylebone at 23.10. Then had to run from Euston Square to Euston and thought i was gonna collapse. Made it with 3 minutes to spare to get the 23.30 last train home. Although had to have a row with the police as he would let us on with Marylebone tickets. Got back in to bed at 2.45am.

I wasnt that bothered about going out as i was still fuming about the Bradford game 3 days earlier.

I think the ones covered in blood were the ones who got off Goughies coach when it took a wrong turning. They were the ones pissing on cars in the car park but got clocked by some blokes in a box who came out and did them, followed by another load soon after.
The skirmish before half time followed the two Millwall behind us going down to the concourse ten minutes before half time.

[SoccerHQ]

How can it be this time last year whem the date is Jan 25th?!

Surely this time last year was the sunday lunchtime after the Albion 2-2 draw?

Fuck me, I didn't mean to the exact minute. Feel free to submit your own contributions to this thread.

Ha Chico I look forward to your Bradford contribution on Wednesday....