COLD BLOW LANE ... 1967 to 1975 ... Did anyone (dare to) visit the Den?

[gregavfc69/70]

Did anyone travel to Millwall during this period?
We won nine out of the final ten games including a 3-1 victory at the Den as Ron took us up season 1974/5,
was there a large following that night and what part of the ground did we occupy?

[Sleeuwenhoek]

Was there for the 3-1 but don't remember much about the game apart from a twice taken penalty by Chico Hamilton, which didn't go down too well with the locals.

[nick harper]

That’s the last time we didn’t lose at Millwall albeit they’ve been at a new ground for a while. A real graveyard for us.

[rougegorge]

My dad took me and my brother. I was very young and I remember it was intimidating although I don't recall a big crowd as such. We did not sport any colours and what I recall most is my dad saying we should stand near a policeman, but thinking about it now, that wasn't necessarily a fool-proof idea.

After the 3rd goal went in, I remember a lot of banging on the iron gates outside from the Millwall fans who were not happy. I think we slipped away quietly just before the end feigning disappointment as we hurried along.

[dcdavecollett]

We went there in about September 1967, after we'd been relegated.

Millwall at the time had a long unbeaten home record (over fifty games, as I recall). We were a poor side, but the signing of the two Brians, Godfrey and Greenhalgh, gave us a boost and they both scored in a 2-1 win.

The locals weren't happy and some of them invaded the pitch. The referee, Norman Burtenshaw, was injured in one clash.

[trinityoap]

I had started going away pretty regularly by 1967.I went to Millwall with some trepidation(no, make that terror).We went into a pub with a friendly landlord who was telling the five of us ,of whom I was by far the youngest, that he always took all the furniture out of the bar on match days not to make more room but to stop the home fans from taking it outside to use as weapons ,but we would be OK for about half an hour before they turned up ..We did not stay very long so did not put it to the test but my impression was that he was being serious. We  also made sure we looked really disappointed as we were going back to the car.   Some years later we went into the same pub again. There was still no furniture in the bar.                                                                                     

[gregavfc69/70]

We had a good record at The Den during that mini era,...W3 D2 L1.
1st September, 1973...pre-match, I was at home listening to Radio Birmingham (later WM) and as the reporter
gave the team news, he mentioned that hundreds of Villa fans were holed up at New Cross Station, was anyone in that group?
Was there a police escort and where were our fans located in the ground?
In fact, was there a particular match where Villa fans were in a large mob at Millwall or more likely mingling in quietly
and keeping quiet?

[dcdavecollett]

The '73 game was the one where some clown threw something at Jimmy Cumbes during the game. Luckily for Jimmy, he came away with a cut on his head rather than losing an eye.

[algy]

My dad went to Millwall away around then. Said him & his mate were walking down the road, noticed that they were getting surrounded by Millwall supporters so darted in to a chip shop, only to be “befriended” by a group in there. My dad had at the time a strong Gloucestershire accent so just bullshitted it that he’d come as a neutral. They told him to come in the Millwall end with them, obvs an offer they couldn’t refuse in the circumstances.

Know Villa won, so I’d guess 1968/9 season but please feel free to correct me as it’s not my story.
Just read Dave Collett’s post - yeah, 2-1. That’d be the game.

Anyway, Villa scored, Millwall supporters they were with ran up the away end for a bit of a fight, returned some time later and interrogated my dad and his mate as to why they’d not joined in. My dad wormed out of the question but they’d then told him “never mind, you can join in next time”.

[Simon Page]

In about 91 I went to Millwall Cambridge at the old Den. No reason, just it was a game and living in sarf Lahn at that time we'd sometimes pick a local (or Palace) nonentity to watch.

Even coming from sunny Peckham, it was shit to get to the ground back then, before billions and hipsters transformed south London transport. Grim as fck trains rattling through grim as fck bombsites to a grim as fck station. Then a walk through a grim as fck crumbling estate with grim as fck faces glaring over grim as fck balconies. Then into the grimmest ground I've ever endured. Corrugated iron, barbed wire and crumbling concrete. The grim as fck tea from the grim as fck tea bar wouldn't have looked out of place in the trenches of the Somme.

Given all that, I momentarily understood why the locals might be so angry at the time. It was grim as, how you say? Then the game started. Granted, it wasn't a feast of football but the main point of interest for the home hundreds was the 17 Cambridge fans who'd bothered. It was just weird to see people who paid to endure such a grim as fck setting in the hope of being able to hit a stranger.

That was the day I decided all hard and wannabe hard men are just dickheads.

[Perthvillan]

The only time I saw Villa there was for a pre season friendly in August 1984. It started to get a bit scary when we went 4-2 up with the locals getting very upset. I left with a couple of others 10mins from the end and ran to the tube station, New Cross I think.
I was talking to a copper before the game and he told me that he saw a Millwall fan bite into his own wrist streaming blood at his frustration at not being able to get into the away cage we were in that day.
Interesting day and never went back there.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I didn't go to the 1967 game which was notorious for their fans attacking referee Norman Burtenshaw who was stretchered off the pitch unconscious.
I was at the April 1969 game with my older brother standing up. I would have been just shy of 12 and it would have been the day before his 17th birthday. When I cheered the Villa goal some bloke gave my brother a bit of a kicking. Something he still reminds me about.
The 1975 night game I was in the relative safety of the seats and we were on a great run of results all the way back to division one. I do recall a couple of Villa lads coming through shitting themselves, i think they had been standing up and somehow escaped into the seats.
Don't really have much recollection of outside the ground. 1969 game we would have gone on the supporters coach and 1975 would have driven down in my Dads car. You never wore colours.

[steamer]

September 73. 1st away game of the season.
Realised it it was going to be a difficult day when our coach driver refused to go closer than tower bridge. We caught the tube to New Cross.
At the station there were a few Villa fans that had got there earlier.
They told us  Villa fans had arrived from the Villa special. They had been met and scattered by the locals with most heading back off to London.
Off to the ground, about 30 of us. We paid our monies at the turnstile and met up inside to go onto the terrace.
I knew then how Custer felt, the Millwall fans poured down from the embankment into us. The only time I have ever seen open knives  brandished at a football match.
Myself and a few others grew wings and flew over a palisade fence into the back of the seats on the side of the ground.
During the build up to kick off a lot of Villa migrated to the seats.
This in turn led to the Millwall fans following suit.
Brian Little scored a great goal, key for more fisticuffs.
At half time Villa fans from all around the ground ( including us ) jumped on the pitch and went down the tunnel.
The Police , decided to give us an escort to the tube station.
There was an attendance that day of 12,000. on the march to the tube station it felt like there was no one left in the ground as there were that many shadowing and taunting us on the other side of the thin blue line.
Heads down dodging bricks and other objects. I asked one police constable, what he would do if they charged through, his comforting response was, Fack all, you shouldn't have come in the first Facking place.
At the tube station there was another team of nutters who had got there before us. A mounted police charge dispersed them allowing us to get into the station and bid Adieu to the shit hole.
What a day
I never went back 

[sid1964]

A friend of mine who is a Leeds fan - went to Millwall in the mid 80s - he was on a coach with other Leeds fans, as they approached the ground, a police man stopped the coach and got on - his words of comfort to them were "what the f.ck are you doing here, you must be mad"