The history of Millwall Football Club, a professional association football club based in Bermondsey, South East London, England, dates back to the club's formation in 1885 as Millwall Rovers.
Formation of the club The club was founded in 1885 as Millwall Rovers by the workers of J.T. Morton in Millwall on the Isle of Dogs. J.T. Morton had been founded in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1849 to supply sailing ships with food. They opened their first English cannery and food processing plant on the Isle of Dogs at the Millwall dock in 1870, and attracted a workforce from across the whole of the country, including the East Coast of Scotland who were predominantly Dundee dockers. The club secretary was seventeen-year-old Jasper Sexton, the son of the landlord of The Islander Pub in Tooke Street where Millwall held their meetings. The first chairman of the club was local GP Doctor William Murray-Leslie, who surprisingly never played for the club. (Murray-Leslie is sometimes cited as being an Irish international footballer, but this is incorrect, since he was a Scot from Knockbain, Ross-shire and in those days you had to be born in Ireland to represent the IFA, ancestry or residence being insufficient. Consequently, there is no-one of that name registered as having played for Ireland.)
Millwall Rovers' first fixture was in 1885 against Fillebrook, who played in Leytonstone. The newly formed team was well beaten 5–0. Learning from this early defeat, they were unbeaten in their next 12 games before they lost to the top east London side Old St Pauls. In their first season, they were only beaten three times. In November 1886, the East End Football Association was formed, and along with it came a Senior Cup Competition. Millwall made it to the final against London Caledonians. The game was played at the Leyton Cricket Ground. The match finished 2–2 and the teams shared the cup for six months each. During this season, Millwall played two games on the same day, both at home. The first was a 0–0 draw against Dreadnought in the morning; the second, a 4–1 win against Westminster Swifts in the afternoon. Despite an 8–1 defeat in the FA Cup, Millwall went on to win the East London Senior Cup at the first attempt. They went on to win it for the following two years and the trophy became their property.
Southern League years The club (now playing under the name of Millwall F.C.), went on to become founder members of the Southern League which they won for the first two years of its existence and were runners up in its third. In those days, The Football League was in its infancy and consisted mainly of northern clubs such as Bury, Notts County, Sheffield United and Preston North End. In the south, the Southern League was not only seen as a rival league, but as prestigious. Millwall were also the Western League Champions in 1908 and 1909.
Millwall played on a variety of grounds on the Isle of Dogs. It was not unusual for Millwall to attract thirty or forty thousand spectators to a game, especially at their second ground at East Ferry Road. This was quite an achievement, given that travelling facilities were sparse.
The Den
They are most famous for The Old Den at New Cross, London, which they moved to in 1910. They had previously occupied no fewer than four separate grounds on the Isle Of Dogs in the 25 years since their formation as a football club. Tom Thorne, the director in charge, had sought the help of architect Archibald Leitch and builders Humphries of Knightsbridge. The estimated cost of The Den was £10,000. The first match was on Saturday 22 October 1910 against the reigning Southern League Champions Brighton & Hove Albion, who spoiled the celebrations by winning 0–1. The price of the official Match Programme was one penny. Unfortunately, the opening ceremony also suffered a slight hitch when it was discovered that Lord Kinnaird, had inadvertently gone to the Canterbury (Ilderton) Road end. He had to be unceremoniously hauled, pushed, and pulled over the wall into the ground. After rushing to the other end (Cold Blow Lane) the president of the FA performed a brief opening ritual and led the players onto the pitch. Before kick off a brass lion, inscribed (in Gaelic) "We Will Never Turn Our Backs To The Enemy", was presented to the club. However the official Club Motto was already established. The first and second editions of the club handbook (published 1908–09 and 1909–1910) bore the slogan: "We fear no foe, where e'er we go". It was here that the infamous Millwall Roar was born. During this era, it was considered "good form" for home fans to show their appreciation of good football displayed by the opposition. The Millwall fans however, would quite literally "roar" for only their team, from start to finish. This strongly partisan support was soon to be regarded by the team as "a goal start." The Den became one of the most feared grounds in the country due to the fact no team liked to play there, because the crowd and the place itself created such a stomach-turning atmosphere. Many supporters from the East End of London continued to follow The Lions in the early years after their move south of the River Thames by walking through the Greenwich foot tunnel to join the supporters drawn mainly from the Surrey Docks. The Lions fans were rough, uncompromising, quick to open their mouths to the team and officials. They came from a background of poverty, hard work and danger – where toughness was necessary for survival. Anyone visiting The Den thinking that southerners were soft, soon realised they were in the wrong part of London.
The Den also hosted a full England international match against Wales on 13 March 1911. England won the game 3–0.
The Football League
Millwall's first Football League match at The Den was on 28 August 1920. They beat Bristol Rovers 2–0. This victory over Rovers was the Lions' seventh successive win against them since moving to The Den. The game was played in the Football League Division 3 South of which Millwall were founder members.
They became known as a hard-fighting Cup team and competed in various memorable matches, notably defeating three-time league winners (and reigning champions) Huddersfield Town 3–1 in the third round of the FA Cup in 1927. Matches against Derby County, Sunderland and others that saw packed crowds of forty-eight thousand plus in the 1930s and 1940s. However, it can be argued that the biggest cup upset came in the fourth round of the FA Cup on 26 January 1957, when Millwall beat the then mighty Newcastle 2–1, watched by a crowd of 45,646, at a time when The Lions were fighting for Third Division survival. Millwall were the tenth best supported team in England in the pre-war years, despite being a Third, then Second Division side. Many thought they would go on to become one of England's best clubs, that is until the Second World War cruelly robbed them of their chance. Millwall at this stage, had dropped the title of "Athletic", and were playing as they do today, under the name of "Millwall F.C."
Wartime exploits
On 7 April 1945, Millwall appeared in a Southern FA Cup Final at Wembley against Chelsea, but because it was an unofficial Wartime Cup Final it is not acknowledged in the record books. With the War in Europe in its last days, there was a relaxation on the number of spectators allowed to attend games. The attendance was 90,000, which is the largest crowd Millwall have ever played in front of. Despite being favourites to win, Millwall played poorly and lost 2–0 to Chelsea. To this day Lions fans who were at the game blame the "guest players" in the Millwall side, and Sam Bartram, the Charlton goalkeeper, in particular. Despite having won the Cup which was presented by King George VI, the Chelsea post match celebrations soon "fizzled out", and most of their players ended up at the Millwall party, which continued well into the early hours of the morning.
With the loss of so many young men during the Second World War it was difficult for all clubs to retain their former status. This was especially true for Millwall, who appeared to suffer more than most. From being one of the country's biggest clubs before the war, Millwall were reduced to one of its smallest afterwards. The Den sustained severe bomb damage during The London Blitz. A German bomb hit The North Terrace on 19 April 1943 and on 26 April, a fire destroyed the main stand. The club accepted offers from neighbours Charlton, Crystal Palace and West Ham to stage games. On 24 February 1944 Millwall returned to The Den, to play in an all-standing stadium. This was achieved, in part, with considerable volunteer labour by the Lions fans.
After the war, rationing in Britain continued and Millwall were refused permission by the Ministry of Works to construct a new two tier stand, despite having procured all the materials. They had to wait until 1948, when permission was granted to build a smaller single tier stand two thirds the length of the pitch, with a forecourt terrace at the front. Archibald Leitch's "trademark gables" were never replaced.
In the doldrums Their form during the 1950s was poor, and they suffered relegation on a regular basis. One highlight during this period was on 5 October 1953, when Millwall played Manchester United to mark the opening of their floodlights. A crowd of 25,000 saw The Lions beat The Red Devils 2–1. In the 1958–59 season, Millwall became founder members of Division Four. It wasn't until the early 1960s that things began to change. During this time, they discovered a number of useful players, such as winger Barry Rowan and goalkeeper Alex Stepney. Stepney later went on to fame with Manchester United, winning a European Cup Winners medal in 1968.
The class of '71
Later in the decade, Millwall established a record of 59 home games without defeat from: 22 August 1964 to 14 January 1967. This was thanks largely to managers Billy Gray, who laid the foundations, and Benny Fenton, a former player who continued to build on Gray's side. All the players were presented with a commemorative gold cigarette lighter by the Football Association. In the early 1970s Millwall boasted a truly great side, now remembered by Lions fans as "The Class of '71". This was a team that included Harry Cripps, Dennis Burnett, Derek Possee, Barry Kitchener, Eamon Dunphy, Keith Weller, Doug Allder, Alan Dorney, Bryan King, and more. They lost out on promotion to the old Division One by just one point. In 1974 Millwall hosted the first game to be played on a Sunday (against Fulham). To get around the law at the time, admission was gained by "Programme Only". On production of a matchday magazine, the bearer was then sold a team sheet bearing the words "Official Programme". The programme was sold for the same price as admission to the ground. Millwall repeated this exercise against Fulham on 25 April 1982, hosting the second game to be played on a Sunday.
Millwall are also the only club to be unbeaten at home in four different divisions: 1927–28 Division 3 (South), 1964–65 Division Four, 1965–66 Division Three, 1971–72 Division Two, 1984–85 Division Three.
George Graham George Graham was Millwall manager from 1983 to 1986, and during that time he guided the club to promotion to the Second Division. Millwall also won the Football League Group Trophy, beating Lincoln City 2–3. It was during this game that Graham spotted a talented young Lincoln striker, John Fashanu, who signed for Millwall and was an F.A Cup winner with his next club, Wimbledon. In the 1984–85 season Millwall knocked Leicester out of the FA Cup. This was a Leicester side that boasted Gary Lineker and Alan Smith, but Millwall showed tremendous discipline and ended up winning 2–0. Graham left to begin a successful nine-year spell as Arsenal manager.