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LONDON EVENING
STANDARD
26th September 2003
THE
EAST END AND SOUTH LONDON...
THEY'RE TWO LIKE-FOR-LIKE
CULTURES AND PEOPLE.
AND ALL THAT SEPARATES
THEM IS THE THAMES
West Ham v Millwall (Sunday, 12 noon)
Former
hooligan Cass Pennant, a member of West Ham’s
notorious
Inter City Firm of the Eighties, on what makes
Sunday’s
first derby with Millwall for a decade so special
|
West Ham against
Millwall is like no other derby in football. The two clubs play each
other for the first time in 10 years on Sunday and it’s a blessing
for the rest of society that such meetings are so infrequent. All football
clubs have local rivalries, particularly in London, but Millwall v West
Ham is on a different level. The atmosphere of hatred is unreal and
that’s why so many people talk about it and are intrigued. I’m
not scaremongering, that’s just the way it is. It’s different
to any other derby – it’s all about the communities surrounding
both clubs. They’re incredibly similar – very hard communities
where being able to handle yourself is all-important. To be honest it’s
got very little to do with football and games just provide a platform
for the hatred. A lot of the people who’ve been to past games cannot
even remember the score! It’s not about football and the attendances tell you that. London derbies always get the highest crowds, but for Millwall versus West Ham they are a lot lower. People know the history and choose to stay away. It shows itself through football but isn’t really a West Ham versus Millall thing, it’s an East End against South London rivalry. You won’t see West Ham on Sunday, you’ll see the East End. You won’t see Millwall, you’ll see South London. There are the same ingredients in other derbies, like Portsmouth versus Southampton, but nowhere in the country are there two areas so rich in hardness. |
These communities
are full of hard people, and not just the hooligans. During the Second
World War, the East End stood up to Jerry and it’s the same in
the south. Every person there can handle themselves, whether it’s
upright citizens dealing with Jerry or the underworld mobsters. They’re like
two brothers, but only one of them can be king. They have the same blood
but would kill each other to take the throne. They are two like-for-like
cultures and people and all that separates them is the Thames. It’s
like they’re looking at a mirror image of themselves. They have
the same kind of outlook and it all amounts to looking after yourself
and being able to back it up. That explains the intensity. There’s no
starting point and it’s been there through history. You can point
to the underworld and rivalry between different dockers but it’s
just an animal, tribal instinct. What makes it special is the depth
and range of people that can back it up. In other parts of the country
it’s just a small section of the community but in the East End
and South London it’s a huge part. It’s a show of force by
the community as a whole and everyone wants to take part. No one can put their finger on one incident, citing revenge from one particular game or another. It’s always been this way. You can go back to medieval times, Victorian times or the time of the Krays. The hatred has always been there. We had the Krays so they came up with the Richardsons. Before that there was the dockets and their cross-river rivalry. |
There’s always
been a rivalry around the areas where the football grounds are located.
It’s only the young men and hooligans that want to have a fight
but big chunks of both localities take an interest. A lot of it is about
the past. Football gives the violence expression, but it’s far
deeper than that. We want to put one over the South London gypsies and
they want to put one over on the Irons. Since I was a kid we always
thought we were better than them. The violence is
not as intense as it was because people’s lives have changed and
they’ve moved away. There’s a difference between fighting
for the community you live in and the one you feel you represent. It’ll
never be as intense as the past. There were some ferocious battles in
the 1970s that will never be repeated. Having said that, Sunday afternoon
could still be fairly lively. Parents should think very carefully before
allowing their kids to go. Football has changed over the last 10 years but some leopards can’t change their spots. Some of the past ugliness will resurface, but the good thing is the police are expecting it. The police presence will be very large and I’d expect them to control it. There’ll be more officers than away supporters, which tells you something. |
