Odd that in a season of dreadful home results, despite a recent improvement, one of the matches we have managed to win at Cardiff City Stadium was against the team we always used to draw with, Millwall. Will our 3-1 win in August mean that tomorrow’s return fixture in London will see a home win that maintains the equilibrium between the two sides that seemed to go on for season after season, or will our three match winning run be enough to see us take the honours against opponents who are very much a mid table outfit this season?
Here’s a set of questions dating back to the sixties on Millwall.
60s. Millwall were the second of a series of clubs, all in the south east corner of England really, at which this forward was unable to repeat his fine scoring record with his home town club. He played just once for Millwall against us in a game notable only for a spectacular own goal, before a move after a so, so couple of years at the Den saw him join title winners, even if his scoring rate declined even further while he was with them. Returning to the capital to wear red, goals were easier to come by, but they weren’t frequent enough to prevent him being loaned out to one of his old stamping grounds. His final league club saw him enjoying sweet food, before he finished with a non league side that once enjoyed a very happy new year in Cardiff, who is he?
70s. Born in a place which shares its name with the surname of an England international goalkeeper, this small, hard working midfielder spent the major part of his career playing for a couple of clubs which you could almost say were based within the sound of Bow bells. Millwall were one of them, but he played more matches for the first of them, a team with itchy feet historically who have now settled down (there was also a short loan move to the seaside not too far away). Despite managing to score more than once in his encounters with us while playing for Millwall, his side never won when he was involved. When he left the Den, he didn’t go far as he entered a depression and then finally left London to listen to southern bell(e)s, from there it was on to non league football in Kent and then in Essex, can you name him?
80s. This London born striker with a surname that is unique in domestic football during my time watching the game I believe, never played against us for Millwall. They were his first club and although he didn’t make too many appearances for them, he did enough to earn a move to a then First Division club who loaned him out to a couple of teams, one of which was, sort of, in Wales. Given a decent number of chances to establish himself in the top flight, his lack of goals eventually persuaded his team to let him leave and he headed towards the Welsh border again before moving a little further into England. settling at a junction. He represented a seat of learning to end his days in the Football League then moving to another club which straddles the Wales/England border, before spending three years with a team we’d beaten in a Welsh Cup Final about a decade earlier.
90s. Tongan or an Irishman, you decide! (5,5)
00s. He really should have played for City with a name like his! However, despite spending five years at Millwall in the early part of this decade, this midfielder never even played for them against us.
10s. Name the former Millwall player who, at the age of thirty seven, was involved in an unlikely cup run recently for a team with goalkeeping problems?
20s. Very long serving West Ham fan in Millwall midfield?
Answers:
60s. Colchester born Bobby Hunt scored a spectacular eight one goals in his one hundred and forty nine appearances for his home town club, before moving on to Northampton side starting the decline in their spectacular climb from the Fourth to the First Division and then back again during this decade. Millwall were his next club and he was in their team which drew 1-1 at Ninian Park in March 1967 when Don Murray lobbed an own goal over Bob Wilson’s head from thirty yards! Hunt was part of the Ipswich team which won the Second Division title in 1968, but couldn’t establish himself in the top flight and eventually signed for Charlton, before ending his days in the full time game at Reading – he then played for Maidstone United for a season in the mid seventies.
70s. Terry Brisley was born in Stepney and started his career with what was then called Orient, who loaned him to Southend for a while in 1974/75. Signing for Millwall for the following season, Brisley scored twice for them in his five encounters with City, but was never on the winning side. After more than one hundred games for the Lions, Brisley moved to the Valley, Charlton and then to Portsmouth before spells with Maidstone and Chelmsford.
80s. Steve Anthrobus signed for Wimbledon from Millwall and was loaned out to Peterborough and Chester before a permanent move to Shrewsbury. After a spell at Crewe, he next turned out for Oxford United before entering non league football with TNS and Hednesford.
90s.Anton Rogan.
00s. Barry Cogan.
10s. Former Millwall midfielder Jimmy Abdou was captain of the Comoros team which managed to qualify for the knock out stages of the recent Africa Cup of Nations where they were drawn against the hosts, Cameroon. Forced to play with an outfield player in goals because of a combination of injuries and a very stringent enforcement of Covid rules, Comoros gave their hosts a real fright before going down 2-1 on a night when six people died in a crush outside the ground – Abdou was also shown a red card.
20s. Billy Mitchell is a current Millwall player who has made about fifty first team appearances for the first team. Billy Mitchell is also the name of a character who has been in Eastenders since 1998 – the Eastenders Billy Mitchell is an avid West Ham fan, as is Perry Fenwick, the actor who plays him.