Source: Daily_Mail
Martin Samuel: This was not Millwall's problem; this was down to West Ham
Crash helmets outside The Queens pub in Green Street. Riot police on the road. That
was the first sign. The first copper said it was the worst he had seen in 10 years. They had called for reinforcements by that time.
The rumours were already circulating of a fatality in Priory Street. A pal of mine, a Millwall fan, got off at Upton Park station. Police said they could not guarantee his
safety. He turned around and went home.
Everyone thought I was mad to bring the boys here, even in the comfort of the posh
seats. I said it was about time they saw a real football match. It seems a rotten joke now. I meant lively. I didn’t mean like this.
West Ham United's fans invade the pitch during the Carling Cup Second Round
Disgraceful: West Ham fans invade the pitch
As always there will be recrimination, claim and counter-claim; all that bogus guff about who started what and why. I can’t comment on what happened outside the ground, but I know what I saw inside. This was not Millwall’s problem; this was down to West Ham.
The trouble started in a West Ham section, the pitch invasions followed home goals. The Italian-style baton charges, the like of which has not been seen in English football for a decade, were to quell the claret and blue end.
Stewards and police stand in front of the Millwall fans during the Carling Cup second round match at West Ham
Thin blue line: Stewards and police stand in front of the Millwall fans during the Carling Cup second round match at West Ham
No doubt the away end contained some real charmers, too, but they were hemmed in by police and security; outnumbered, too. The saving grace was that they did not have sufficient support to turn the stadium into a battleground.
That took place outside. As bad as one eyewitness, a senior policeman, had ever seen apparently. If he was around for the Seventies that is saying something.
Should West Ham be thrown out of the Carling Cup? English football was taken back to the dark ages as West Ham and Millwall fans clashed at Upton Park. There were incidents inside and outside the ground as hundreds of supporters went on the rampage on a night of horror in east London. Should the Hammers be thrown out of the Carling Cup? Or should they be punished in another way?
What possessed the pitch-invaders to seek approval of the players, to grin and try to shake hands like friends? West Ham could be thrown from the tournament after this,
the ground could be closed. Football clubs, football people, despise them. Don’t they
know that?
Security at football grounds is weak these days. Rocketing police charges have led to
an increase in private orange-jacketed stewards who are no replacement for coppers.
They are glorified nightclub doormen. They do not want to get hit. They were letting interlopers back into the stand only for them to run on and do it again.
The police seemed swamped, unprepared for the enormity of the event. Perhaps we all were.
At the end, Jack Collison, the young West Ham midfield player who lost his father in a motorcycle accident on Sunday yet chose to play last night, was led from the field in an emotional state.
Emotional: Jack Collison is led from the pitch
Emotional: Jack Collison is led from the pitch
The contrast between him and the idiots cavorting around him could not have been more marked.
Why bother?
It is a question a good many would have been asking as they edged their way home, lit by blue flashing lights, stepping through the human debris and the broken glass.
