http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7294990.stm

so attendances at Selhurst Park will be down by around 50% then for a couple of years.......smiley winkey thing!

contrary to what i said in a previous post....i dont want these thugs moving anywhere near my high street or park!

As always, a handful of morons ruin the reputation of an entire football club. They got what they deserved.

Yep - complete morons who dishonour the club they supposedly support - Thankfully they are very much in the minority of what is , and remains , a very family friendly and on the whole trouble free club

seriously though, as a supporter of a club with a 'reputation' this story did surprise me. I've never encountered any trouble at SP in all my years of going there. As Jamesl said, always seemed to me as a very family club

Always nice to hear from our resident well informed 'whelk' on these matters. the sentences dished out seem a little harsh considering the disgusting violence that seems to take place week in week out in our area. I suppose because it was 'football' related makes it that much worse...?

A bit harsh for hitting a child my posterior. They are not football fans but looking to get thrills using a football team as cover !

Morons morons morons !

Dazza

Sadly this is not a new phenomena as those that grew up in the days of CP & Millwall will recall..........
In the 1970's it was much worse than it is today.

no but it is supposed to be a sport to a war ground - my dad stopped taking me to watch football in the stadium in the 80s because of this and slowly we got more and more into rugby and what a difference is a rugby crowd/match!!

You see very little trouble at the ground however most of the trouble is by so called fans who dont have tickets.

In the 70's violence did only occur between fans only however it does seem now that old ladies & children are now fare game to these morons as well . Oh how I wish relatives of these idiots read this forum . I bet there are some proud proud parents out there !

Dazza

Morons yes duzza. but hitting a 24 year old child...?

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/mostpopular.v...ll_violence.php

But then who would want to let the daily mail readers amongst us get in the way of a good story..?

back to my original point. does the time fit the crime...?

You're implying the sentences should be lighter!?!?!?!

Two wrongs don't make a right. Send down the scrotes who commit worse crimes for longer!!

(ps. football related violence counts as an aggravating factor in sentencing and so a custodial sentence is far more likely/inevitable.)

'Whelk'? I like it, though i'm not sure if thats a dig!

I'm a veteran of Millwall 'meetings' and i'll guarantee they do not compare with your experiences. I'm not ashamed of saying that i've dipsosed of underwear after them either.

Anyway, anyone who goes around frightening the scarfers, kids and elderly deserve all they get

I'd say that sentencing for football related offences is harsher than "general offences", but I think that says more about sentences being too light generally than anything else. They got this one right IMO, but I do wish they'd hand out harsher sentences for other violent crimes.

No the fact they are being violent due to a certain colour a football team adorn. They should be looked up longer for being so stupid.

The fact is they no longer seek out trouble makers who support the opposite side & anyone is fare game is very worrying. The people who think the sentance is to short just remember that when you are on a train with these people you are fair game to them !



Dazza

Do you mean too long (not short)? I don't think their sentences are too long. I'm just saying I wish other violent offenders were dealt with in the same way. There are too many lenient sentences with people getting early release and suspended sentences IMO. Like I said in my post, they got it right... this time!

COYI, I don't blame you for needing a change of trousers. Most football fans have had frightening experiences involving members of that particular football club...

Indeed, I was featured on a Panorama once upon a time, being filmed having bottles thrown at me. Needless to say, I have not been back.

circa 1988 Matt? If so, i was there! Very squeaky bum time

More recent than that I'm afraid
it was either Millwall 3 Forest 3 on 20th Oct 01, or Forest 2 Millwall 1 on 5th October 02. I'm thinking the former as the crowd was 5000 less for the latter, and that was probably as they banned Forest fans from the next 2 away games in Millwall. They should just have banned Millwall period, in my view.

Edit - the power of google - yep, it was Oct 01.

You should have visited leed united in the 80's . It was the most scariest away trip of my life we had to park at least 5 miles away & be escorted from there to Elland Road by the Police whilst rabid fans spit & threw things at us.

Dazza

ah got you! i thought you were tallking about the doc of WHU v Millwall on BBC years back

Dazza...Indeed that walk back to the station from Elland road was not for the faint hearted

My father-in-law is a Millwall season ticket holder and has been since he was in his teens. He was at Cold Blow Lane in the 60s and 70s... he said it wasn't pretty.

That said, I've been a few times over the past few years and always found the Den pretty harmless. A lot of the time it's hoolies from other firms who come down and join up with the Millwall fans to cause trouble, and it's always outside the ground.

Oh thats all right then Elmo, as long as its usually just hoolies from other firms and generally harmless. Maybe I should have just wandered through the double police lines and barricade-of-vans to explain that to the Millwall lot whilst avoiding the bottles smashing into the ground around me. That was after being penned in the ground for an hour after the game whilst the police tried to move the baying mob far enough so that only the very longest throws would reach us. And this wasn't 1975 or 1985, this was 2001. OK, I was too young for anything other than the family section in the 1970s-80s, but this is the only time I've seen trouble, and it was aimed at my head. In my book, Millwall therefore stand condemned. Compare that to watching many Palace games in the away end over recent years (not recent enough though of course given how Forest have done!) as well as most other grounds in the South East and theres never been a hint of aggro walking back after the match.
Later that season a Portsmouth fan was crippled after being set on by Millwall fans on the way back to his car.

Frankly, if you are a Millwall supporter (and funny how everyone always knows plenty of nice ones), you've no self-respect for how people should behave, you should disown the club and the thugs and go follow another South London team, perhaps a local non-league club like Fisher.

Strong words perhaps, but I see no reason to mince words when I'd have been beaten to a pulp by a baying mob if it wasn't for the police - merely for going to watch a game of footy.

I'm a nice Millwall supporter!!

I think the reality is that every club has a particularly stupid, idiotic, moronic element in their supporters. I've lost track of the times I have been away with the Potters and seen trouble from a small group. We now have to have police checks before we are allowed to buy away tickets and it has worked quite well, even if it angered a lot of the regular fans. No club can claim to be clean as I've even seen trouble at Woking (!) games.

In the end, it is the behaviour of the majority that will drive these people out of our game. Don't tolerate it, don't laugh at it, don't defend it, don't hide the perpetrators and treat it as though it was any other piece of violent activity you see on the streets.

I agree completely, it is always a minority. Unfortunately for Millwall, their minority is larger than most and as a result of their reputation, they attract a lot of thugs, wanting to get in on the violence. It's even worse in the lower leagues, where the thugs are more noticeable due to smaller crowds. Saying that, even the majority of Millwall fans aren't thugs and as a Palace supporter I say that very grudgingly! The scowling thug makes an impression in people's minds and is more noticed and remembered than the many regular football fans that only want to watch a game and support their team.

On the Palace supporter's boards the actions of these thugs are being condemned just as they are here, which speaks volumes about the majority of fans.

Steady on pal, never said violence was harmless!! I meant that inside the ground, the atmosphere's been pretty harmless. I know a few Lion supporters who are fed up with the shite that follows them round from other clubs, but they love their team. It's not as easy as just leaving for another club.

For the record I'm an armchair Hammer and a real-life Dartford FC supporter. And for other sports... Rugby - Leicester Tigers, Basketball - London Towers, Unicaja Malaga and NY Knicks, Cricket - Kent, Poker - Me.

While you're on the subject

Cricket: Essex
Rugby: Wasps
Basketball: Milwaukee Bucks
Aussie Rules: Essendon Bombers
Yank Football: Washington Redskins
2nd Club: Dagenham & Redbridge
Baseball: NY Yankees (I know they're the Man Yoo of baseball but was first game i saw)

Back to the original subject...

More info on those arrested including photos here...
http://www.its-happening.biz/sydenhamnews/...rain-jailed.htm

What a handsome bunch they are...

Nice one . Sweet justice with any luck the lose their jobs too. Mind you not sure what job they could hold done cos they dont look to bright !

Dazza

But it took six months to arrest them. Six months. What took so long?

6 months was excellent considering they would need to be ID'd from CCTV, their whereabouts traced and the detailed planning involved to arrest them all on the same day - to get 150 officers carrying out a non terrorist or drugs related operation in these times is impressive and shows how seriously BTP took the matter - so well done to them in my book.