After reading this post, please click here to read ‘independent’ evidence justifying my claims.

I’ve made the journey from the Midlands to south east London to watch Millwall FC play enough times not to expect either a good match or indeed a win. In fact the handful of times that I’ve been this season, I haven’t seen either a good match or a win and so being ever the realist, expectations were far from high.

Last Saturday’s (15th March) match was a local derby against Leyton Orient FC (east London) and so the Millwall website recommended that supporters arrive early. Despite heeding the Club’s warnings, the match was far from being a sell-out and my son and I took our seats in the Lower West Stand (amended: click here to read about my amendments), two rows from the pitch (for some reason, kids always seem to want to sit as close to the pitch as possible). Whilst quite a few seats remained, just after kick-off a group of middle-aged men took their seats a few rows behind us. Whilst no more angrier than many of the others around us, their presence brought with it some tension and from then on, an uncomfortable feeling.

With an uneventful first half having passed, the second half saw Millwall go a goal down as well as have a player sent off. It also began to rain which added to the mood of despair that was creeping in. With the downturn in Millwall’s fortunes, so the group behind us began to get more and more animated, making the mood increasingly tense. With about 10 minutes to go, one of the group came to the pitch-side - at the side of my son and I - and began to abuse the Leyton Orient players who were warming up in front of us. Alongside the member of the group appeared three children - probably between the ages of 7 and 11 - who the man proceeded to encourage to shout abuse and obscenities at the Orient players. Taking in all the usual standard expletives, the more abusive the kids became, the more the supporter patted them on the back whilst turning to the crowd to gain their recognition for him being so proud of how he had brought up his offspring.

One of the Orient players was Clayton Fortune. Fortune was also black. As the stakes were raised so the kids began to racially abuse Fortune. When he turned - in rightful disgust - and said to the father that he should shut them up, the supporter tried to jump on the pitch with the seeming intention to fight him. With this, the crowd around him also began to push forward and in an instant, Fortune was being abused by between five and ten different individuals. The abuse continued and increasingly, the supporters became more confrontational and threatening towards Fortune.

Under a storm of racist abuse, Fortune said something probably derogatory to the crowd. With this, the crowd became angrier than they already were with a number acting as though they were trying to get on the pitch. Various stewards arrived as did their supervisor. With this, the father became the most vociferous, telling the supervisor how Fortune had just directed a torrent of abuse at his children and how he didn’t expect this from a professional football player. The kids - who were obviously use to this sort of thing - began to make out they were upset whilst other supporters began to apparently console them. All, of course, were friends of the children’s father.

Despite Fortune’s protests, the supervisor took witness statements from the various supporters who were in on the ruse and to some amazement, an off-duty policeman from within the crowd also went to the supervisor to agree with how events had apparently unfolded. As the supervisor walked away to get an on-duty Police officer in order to make a formal complaint against Fortune, the supporter looked back at Fortune, laughed and gave him the ‘wanker’ hand gesture. In honesty, it made me feel quite sick.

I love Millwall Football Club and have done since I was 9 years old. Despite moving 130 miles away from the Club, I still find myself longing to go back there and be a part of my family’s heritage and roots. But when I go back and experience similar things to what happened last Saturday - and believe me, it happens a lot - I do find myself faced with a sense of overwhelming disappointment and at the same time, a realisation of where I came from: somewhere I feel a million miles away from today and don’t ever want to go back to (sorry).

Having said that, I don’t believe that Millwall FC are to blame. They, more than any other Club, have worked tirelessly to break the stereotypes that people have about them, working in the community, having a long tradition of bringing players through its youth ranks from disadvantaged communities, and systematically excluding and banning those supporters that continue to believe that racism is an acceptable quality. Yet still the same bigots and racists continue to blight the Club as well as blight the experience of those individuals, groups and families that go to support their team.

This is what I hate about Millwall FC. Yet at the same time, I still love the Club.

(NB: Whilst some may ask why I didn’t speak up in defence of Clayton Fortune. Having been a Millwall fan for over 30 years, in such situations, there really is little that you can do - except that is unless you’re willing to take a very severe beating after the match quite irrespective of whether you support the team or not. On this occasion, I preferred not to take up this option.)