It's April 28, 2024, 01:58:19 PM
This is all being blown out of proportion. I was in in the Canning Town,Plaistow and Upton Park area's from 5pm to 7.45 pm before making my way to the stadium. In all honesty,I rarely saw any Millwall fans. There was chinese whispers going around from mobile to mobile all evening,such as 600 Millwall turned up at Barking (Nowhere near where many W Ham fans would be) and took liberties with the few fans that were there. Also,there were rumours that Millwall were at the boleyn pub. Contrary to both of those rumours,there's no way a firm of 600 blokes could travel to Barking without being caught by police cctv. All you saw before the game was numerous police vans flying up and down the Barking Road from station to station. This was obviously everytime a few hundred or so millwall turned up at station's to which they would of been escorted straight to Upton Park station and straight into the North Bank entrance of the stadium.I actually travelled via the underground from London Bridge to Plaistow and didn't see any Millwall on my travels. Also,the riot police were waiting at Plaistow for Millwall fans,in order to keep them on the train all the way to the next stop which is Upton Park.With regards to the violence outside of the stadium,this was obviously Millwall fans without tickets who turned up after kick off. They had there full allocation in the stand when I got inside at 7.50.So any trouble that was going on outside was obviously Millwall fans that were without tickets. Inside of the stadium,there was banter from the West Stand Lower NB corner (where I was sitting) to the North Bank Lower (where Millwall fans were seated) between both sets of fans. However,early in the second half rumours spread around the North Bank corner of the West Stand Lower that a West Ham fan had been stabbed to death outside of the stadium after the game had kicked off when West Ham fans were all inside. This basically prompted about 50 fans to try and get at Millwall fans to which the majority were all being clubbed over the heads by riot police.This went on for a good 7 minutes,with the odd few West Ham fans trying to have digs at old bill or trying to get past them. The OB then had the HD Cam Recorder's out on the fan's faces. Nothing major really.However,when Stanislas scored the first,a good few hundred rushed to the front and tried having a go at Millwall only to be held back by the riot police. By this point,the Wall fans arseholes had fell out.There was hardly any of them looking over,let alone gesturing or singing. It really looked as though a good few hundred West Ham would get at them if they kept persisting to get through the barriers.The atmosphere was unbelievable,a proper football match. After the penalty,West Ham fans from different area's of the ground got onto the pitch however,none of them were anywhere near the Millwall fans or even trying to get to them.It was basically fans from the Bobby Moore Stand or the Bobby Moore end of the West Stand that got onto the pitch,they didn't even go past the half way line to the half of the pitch where Millwall fans were. Its been overly exaggerated on tv.I've got mobile video's which show the West Ham fans who did manage to get on the pitch were actually those in other area's of the stadium including a stupid fat cunt (and mainly a lot of young boys) who didn't go anywhere near Millwall fans or try and incite them.Was more a case of our younger fans getting excited that we had equalised after playing shit and not even looking like scoring up till that point.I even saw stewards jumping up and down, celebrating arm in arm with a few fans who had jumped the barrier. Unbelievably exaggerated by the bullshit journo's who were probably nowhere near any of it.In all,I think the police outside of the stadium did a decent job and any trouble would of been in area's that were not policed.My old man and his mates (whom are all well known WH old faces) told me there were planned meets and a few fights but not even 1% of how it was in the old days.I think the small number of arrests alone,tells that story anyway.My dad and his mates were also told by a London Met chief superintendent who know's them well,that the person stabbed was a 44 year old male who's actually a Millwall fan who didn't even have a ticket.So i'll leave other people to decide what he's reason's were for being in and around the boleyn area.The stuff on sky is so OTT, the bit where they show people behind a fence was next to Queens Pub (smoking bit) near UP station and WH were singing let's go fucking mental, there were about 10 riot police outside getting a few plastic beers thrown at them but not exactly a riot. On the other side of that fence were 50 times the number of WH standing about waiting for Milwall to come out of UP station, if you didn't want to be there you didn't have to be. A few idiots threw bottles, most were just singing and having a look really.Those Millwall fans (who all had to produce match tickets before being let out of the train station) got escorted to the ground without any fights going on.So in all,a few drunks were on the pitch for a couple of minutes! A few plastic bottles were thrown! Some mugs who are not west ham fans and who were not at the game got into some trouble?Lets all hype it up,and pretend this will effect England's World Cup bid when shithole's like South Africa and Brazil can manage to host the tournament. In all honesty,West Ham shouldn't even get punished for this. Millwall were very well policed... about 20 rows seperation between them and us, the Upper Trevor Brooking stand above them was closed off! No fans allowed in there whatsoever.Hence the attendance only being 25,000.The main trouble was in the Centenary corner where it was a full time job for stewards and police to keep control,but they managed to do so.Then after the goal's about 50/60 mainly kids went over the wall from the less carefully stewarded Bobby Moore and East Stand danced around a bit and then returned...NO violence at all from those actions.So I doubt West Ham can even be charged for not controlling the fan's inside the stadium. Let alone those (who may of not even had tickets) outside of the stadium for throwing plastic bottles.I can honestly say,this is the best football game i've ever been to.The atmosphere was electric all night. I honestly don't think a football match will ever top this,even though i'm already booked for South Africa next summer.