Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat, when I say ‘Millwall fans’ I am not talking about the whole Millwall fanbase – not at all.
I am not tarring all those Millwall fans who likely sit there every time, and most probably sat there earlier this afternoon with their mouth agape and thinking ‘Oh for f**k’s sake, not again!’ as they watched their counterparts charge across the top tier at Wembley towards rejoicing Barnsley fans.
In football, passions run high and disappoinments run deep – I should know, I’m a Leeds United fan myself and we are reknowned for that lunatic fringe that attaches themselves to a club and see part of the ‘Saturday experience’ as being a rumble with the opposition fans and some sort of machismo display to demonstrate that you aren’t a melt.
I’m not going to all sociological and talk about geographies of exclusion, social factors and layers of identity in talking about the whys and wherefors of how football violence ties in with football as a cultural expression – there’s likely to be enough of that coming in the national broasdsheets as they turn to University professors in order to fill up column inches.
I’m not going to go there, I am not going to eulogise about what makes football fans think that having a bit of a grapple is in some way an intrinsic part of football. It isn’t. All rational-thinking football fans know that it isn’t.
What I will do is present just how Twitter has reacted to what unfolded before their eyes as they watched the scenes of violence unfold in front of their own eyes as the final whistle sounded the death knell on Millwall’s play-off final hopes – condemning the Londoners to another season of League One football.
The violence started even before the game kicked off with thugs, and yes they are thugs, from BOTH teams went at each other in London (below)
https://twitter.com/Jamie_Scoins/status/736887829700173826
But it was these scenes inside the ground that have led to the pictures likely to grace all manner of print and press tomorrow as, once again, the face of football shows its dark, ugly side.
On the next page, the Twitter reaction of fans in reponse to the violence.
