In this edition of the Achtung! Millwall ‘random fixture from the past’ series, our eye falls upon some ancient black and white TV footage, to be found on You Tube at https://youtu.be/wm5x_LzqM18

Sixty years ago, Millwall were playing in the newly created Division Four https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_League_Fourth_Division - the grainy, low level images make a fascinating ‘time trip’ back to a very different looking era. 

Which channel would have shown this game? The flagship BBC Match of the Day show did not start until the mid-1960s. So judging by the commentator, who sounds very much like Kenneth Wolstenholme of 1966 fame, this must have been the precursor ’Sports Special’ which ran from 1955 to 1963 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_on_television

The single camera team shot the game seemingly from above the managers’ dugouts, giving an intimate feeling to the event. 

The sight of kids running on to the pitch after each goal meeting with the stern, ‘headmaster-ish’ disapproval of Wolstenholme, who makes a ‘something must be done’ comment. And something would indeed ‘be done’, but not for another 25 years until the post Heysel and Hillsborough era, when the game would (for better or worse), leave this era behind.

Viewed from the sanitised Premier League vantage point of 2021, where apologies for any bad language that you might have just heard are standard, these mini pitch invasions by a bunch of over-excited schoolkids looks rather quaint. 

In the 1960-61 season the Lions would finish in 6th position in the Fourth Division table, only the top four earning promotion to the Third Division - so it would be another year of basement league football for the Lions under the newly installed management of Ron Gray. http://www.millwall-history.org.uk/Millwall-Stats60-61.htm

Peterborough United, not long elected to the Football League, as mentioned in the commentary, would go on to win the league title for the 1960-61 season. 

THE MILLWALL TEAM:

REG ‘THE CAT’ DAVIES

DENNIS JACKSON

PAT BRADY

DAVE BUMPSTEAD

TERRY BRADY

LEON VAESSEN

JOEY BROADFOOT

DAVID JONES

ALF ACKERMAN

PETER BURRIDGE 

ALAN SPEARS

SCORERS: JONES, BURRIDGE 2, SPEARS

ATTENDANCE: 18,503

Player focus:

Reg Davies - goalkeeper

Born 10.10.1933 - Tipton, Staffs

210 apps for the Lions 1958-63

Nicknamed ‘The Cat’ by the Millwall supporters

Other clubs:

1953-55 - West Bromwich Albion - 4 apps (inc Football League championship medal)

1955-57 - Walsall - 53 apps

1957-63 - Millwall - 199 apps (inc Division 4 championship medal )

1963-64 - Leyton Orient - 11 apps

1964-65 - Port Vale - 13 apps

1965-66 - Leyton Orient - 16 apps

(all league appearances)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Davies_(footballer,_born_1933)

National Service - Royal Artillery

After retirement - Reg worked at Jersey Airport.

Alf Ackerman - striker 

1929-88 Born in Pretoria, South Africa

Various clubs: Clyde - Hull City - Norwich City - Derby County - Carlisle Utd - 402 league appearances 217 goals

Millwall 1959-61 81 apps 35 goals

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