Can I give my memories of Sheffield United - from a Millwall point of view.
My first visit was 2002 for a Tuesday night game at t'Lane.
16,037 were in attendance, with 621 travelling up from SE London. I guess I was the 1.
We got to witness a rip roaring match, with future Blade Paul Ifill putting us 1-0 up and looking pretty good to go to win at a canter...this was a decent Lions side, featuring Paul Ifill, Steven Reid, Tim Cahill, Tony Warner and Lucas Neill - all of whom went on to play Premier League football. Richard Sadlier was the best of the lot - but had his promising career cut painfully short by a cruel hip condition.
However, this was a Sheffield United on the up, and despite finishing 13th that season they had a crop of decent youngsters too, who helped them to 3rd the following season and to promotion in 2006. And backed by a very partisan crowd they fought back and equalised in the 67th minute via one of those promising youngsters in Michael Tonge. The Lions stepped up a gear though, and took the lead again just 6 minutes later.
It was getting quite heated inside the ground, as Millwall and United fans exchanged insults over in the corner, this ramped the atmosphere up again and the Blades responded, with Ndlovu grabbing a late, late brace to send our friends in the corner wild.
The matched ended 3-2 to the Blades, and the 621 Wall fans went to make their way out into the typically cold Sheffield night...only to be greeted by a chant of 'BBC, BBC, BBC' growing louder and louder. For some reason there was quite a relaxed police presence, quite odd considering how active Millwall were that season (ending in a full scale riot in May, which saw 900 police officers injured after a play-off match with Birmingham City). Indeed, there were probably a good 400 hooligans & casuals up for meeting these Blades Business Crew chanters head on. It soon became apparent that the majority of the chanters were youngsters trying to live off the name of the infamous BBC, with only a few serious, old school hooligans amongst them.
I ended up scooping up a young lad who had got caught up in the melee, and returning him to his grateful dad, a United fan. We stood quite casually about 20 foot away from the big punch up discussing what a great game it was. Quite surreal. Even more surreal was the fact that I was seeing a girl who was a student in Sheffield, and so I walked back to her house along Ecclesall Road, but ended up getting into a fight with a couple of pissed up, annoying students.
The only other time was when we somehow got a 2-2 draw in front 22,292. You lot were top, and we were rock bottom. Only 321 of us bothered going - I guess I was the 1 again. I came up with two mates, one of whom was refused entry by your stewards, as he didn't have a ticket or a Millwall membership card. At this time Millwall fans were still having to hand in passport pictures and prove address details with utility bills to join the membership scheme - and you had to be a member to be able to buy a ticket, and all away games were all-ticket. They still are - but you don't have to hand in a passport picture or utility bills now at least. However, my mate was helping his brother run a nationwide drugs distribution operation out of Peckham using long distance lorry drivers at the time, something his brother is still doing time for, and so didn't really want to sign up to the membership scheme, especially as all details were passed on to the Met. Instead he had a few beers in that pub opposite the ground, before the police moved him on. He followed the game on ceefax (remember that) while watching Columbo on the B&B tv.
You lot got a late(ish) equaliser, and it did feel a bit unfair, as bizarrely we were the better side. I think there was a bit of trouble in town later on, and this may have been the season that a Blades fan was badly beaten...which led to quite a big turn out of Sheffield United hooligans at one of the more recent Den meetings. In fact it is one of the very few times in recent years that anyone has 'called it on' as they say, here in SE London, rather than shouting out while walking down 'Coward's Way'.
Btw, before anyone starts, no, I am not a 'Danny Dyer' wannabe. I am an ordinary person. It's just that when you follow Millwall away, especially to places like Sheffield, you tend to come back with a few stories to tell!
