EX-MILLWALL HOOLIGAN WHO HAD 'FIRST TEAR UP AT 13' RECALLS RIVAL TRYING TO 'PUT AXE IN HEAD'

An ex-football hooligan who was involved in his first tear up aged 13 revealed how close he came to someone from a rival firm putting an axe in his head.

'Ginger Bob' joined the infamous Millwall Bushwackers at the age of just 11. But it was an incident a few years later when the reformed thug came close to disaster.

Speaking to James English's Anything Goes podcast, Bob recalled the harrowing encounter as his team were set to play Nottingham Forest in 1973.

He said: "We played a match with Nottingham Forest, we took about 100 firm up there. We played them in the League Cup. A little kid came up and said 'Bob, Bob they're here.'

"There was 40 Romany Gypsy guys from Newark, Forest boys, all in their 30s and 40s and they all had weapons. So we've gone down there 25-handed and we've gone straight into them.

"This guy went to put an axe in my head. One of my friends, Italian Tony, blocked the guys arm."

Bob, who used to go and watch the Lions play with his dad, joined the Millwall Bushwackers at the tender age of just 11. But he experienced his first proper fight two years later aged just 13.

He was on the train with his dad en route to Leyton Orient - but it was the Mile End firm of Millwall's fierce rivals West Ham who really spelled trouble.

Bob said: "West Ham's Mile End firm was at Wapping. They broke into the station, they got all these iron bars.

"We was all packed on the train. Once we got out and we got on the platform with them it was like a massive fight and we got the better off them.

"It's like a disease, the adrenaline rush. It's very very hard to get out of.

"Millwall, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham is like the five families in New York, the Mafia. With Millwall, it was so secretive. Because of my near death experience I've got to get the stories out. We're very tight."

The former hooligan revealed there was one thing stopping people in Millwall's firm from doing a runner in the middle of the fight - fear.

If anyone ran they would be "completely ostracised" from the firm according to Bob.

He added: "We had more heavy guys than the other firms. We seemed to be outnumbered most of the time. If anyone ran, they would be completely ostracised from the firm. Even if you're going to get killed, you have to stand and fight.

"If you run, you're not just told, you'll be physically dealt with. It's like being in the Mafia and being a grass."

2024-09-09T14:00:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd