Chapter 32: The Visitor from Millwall (I)
On April 21, the forty-fourth round of the league. Nottingham Forest host Burnley.
"There are three rounds left in the league and the top six positions in the table have changed since the last round of the league. With fourth-placed Reading losing by a goal at home to Forest, they have been overtaken by Wolves and dropped to fifth. The points for fourth to sixth place are seventy-one, seventy, and sixty-nine, respectively. Look at these points! It's really exciting to look forward to the remaining three rounds of the league! After two consecutive away games, Toney; Donn and his team are back at City Stadium, and after 90 minutes, what will be the score on the electronic scoreboard? ”
Ninety minutes later, Don stood on the sidelines in high spirits and shook hands with the visiting coach, with a bright smile on his face. Diagonally above him, the electronic scoreboard at the top of the stands freezes the final score of the half: 2:0. In international practice, the home team is in front and the away team is in the back.
Nottingham Forest claimed their second win in a row, and despite the fact that the teams in the signing table all won, there was no change in the table and it did not hurt Donn's good mood. Because his team has already secured a place in the promotion play-offs two rounds ahead of schedule.
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On April 26, the 45th round of the league was the penultimate round. Nottingham take on Rotherham' United away.
Rotherham are very similar to Forest's opponents in the previous round, Bonley, both of whom are in the middle of the table, with no worries about relegation and no hope of promotion. For the last few rounds of the league, they lacked enough fighting spirit. Maybe these players are now all about where to go on holiday or use the summer transfer window to go to a better-treated team. Such a team is the opponent of Nottingham Forest, it is like a pizza delivery boy.
Hungry Forest played Rotherham on the road a beautiful 2:0, the team's top scorer Malone; Haylewood has taken his tally to 24 league goals this season, while his striker partner David; Johansen also scored his own 20th goal.
The final stages of the league were perfect for Donn, and now there was only one opponent left......
He looked at the calendar, and eight days later, on the Fourth of May, under the red circle, there was a line of small letters, the name of their opponent, Millwall.
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May 4, 2:57 p.m. City Stadium
A lively male lion roared with its front paws raised in the air, as if it would leap down from the blue flag at any moment as the fans' hands swung and tore its prey.
More than 100 visitors gathered outside the stadium and slowly made their way towards the City Stadium. And most ordinary Forest fans consciously took a detour when they saw this blue phalanx. So much so that there was no obstacle on their way.
Of course, there are those who are not afraid of death. On either side of the crowd of Millwall fans, the same group of about 100 fans wearing Forest Red shirts were shouting and making many insulting gestures to the Millwall fans. The Millwall fans countered with words and gestures in the phalanx, but the two sides did not rush forward to fight together.
Because between these two groups of fans there is a large number of British police officers in bright yellow vests. They were heavily armed and wary of the fans on either side.
For the city of Nottingham, today is the weakest and most stressful time of the year. Because the Millwall fans came.
Millwall is perhaps one of the few clubs in the world where the fans are more famous than the club itself. As a small team based in South London, they don't have many achievements and accolades to brag about, and they don't have any big stars. But they have one of the toughest fan groups in the UK and the world.
Millwall has some of the most notorious football hooligans in England.
At an intersection, the group of lions stopped, and the police surrounded them in the middle, where they needed to wait for the Forest team bus to pass. Even when they stopped, they were still scolding the Forest fans on the periphery.
Three car horns sounded ahead, and a red bus slowly drove into the men's field of vision.
Suddenly, the blue Millwall fans threw down the Forest fans on the periphery, and aimed the insults at the Forest players sitting in the car, and some even excitedly wanted to lean over to find bricks to smash the car. That's when the two rows of police officers gathered outside them did their part - pushing back the fans who wanted to cross the line.
Despite the soundproofing of the bus with its windows closed, Done could still hear the Millwall fans outside. Their mouths pursed, and at first glance it was the sound of "f", and "" came and went, and they kept raising their middle fingers, and their faces were hideous. It's been half a season since he led the team, and it's the first time for Donn to see such vicious fans, and it feels like they're not here to watch the game, but to find fault and fight.
In order to confront the Millwall fans, the Forest fans who had gathered together also began to fight back with foul language, which attracted Donn's attention. He easily found the familiar face in the crowd - Mark; Hodge.
This middle-aged man, who usually looks a little polite, has a red neck due to congestion, a hideous face, and growls at each other through gritted teeth, like an angry bulldog.
"Football hooligan......" Donn whispered the words Walker had told him that night at the bar.
Walker, who was beside him, noticed that Donn had noticed the situation outside, and he looked over, apparently accustomed to it. "Tony, it's all pediatrics now, and when you get to the stadium later, when the game starts, I'll make sure you'll open your eyes."
Don looked at him.
"When the time comes, we'll need to use yells to communicate like this." Walker laughed, and gestured his hand between the two. "And it's still screaming in my ear."
As he spoke, the bus had left the intersection of pent-up rage and turned towards the team's parking lot. Don turned around and saw only a few fluttering flags and a red-blue blurred figure. The Forest's fans were singing and Don knew the group must have been scolding each other again.
Don felt after and Mark; Hodge doesn't have a lot of contact, and now he can more or less understand the thoughts of these football hooligans: to insult opponents for the team they like, to fight with opposing fans for the team they like, to fight for the team they like...... They can even die.
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