West Ham United's nPower Championship clash with Millwall FC is being broadcast live by Sky - as exclusively revealed by KUMB.com.

KUMB.com revealed yesterday that Sky Sports would be broadcasting the game - which kicks off at 12:30pm this coming Saturday (4th February) - live from the Boleyn Ground.

you might have to take a bit of a wander if you fancy a sherbet or two, looks like a booze crack down in the ground area

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NEWS Shopper online's Millwall columnist MATT LITTLE this week takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the rivalry between the Lions and West Ham ahead of this weekend's derby trip to Upton Park

WELL, that was a pretty tame surrender to Watford last night and is really not acceptable at The Den, a place which has been our fortress in other difficult times.

Luckily for the players we face the auld enemy West Ham United on Saturday, a game that provides the perfect opportunity for redemption.

I often think of this fixture as the good, the bad and the ugly derby.

While tabloid journalists have demanding editors and blank pages to fill with the ugly side, the good invariably gets overlooked.

Which is a shame, as this fixture deserves a bit more dignity than that.

It is one of the oldest derby fixtures in the country, starting in 1897 when Millwall Athletic beat Thames Ironworks 2-0, and was born out of a genuine rivalry between two sets of workers in the beating heart of the British Empire – the London docks.

However, it didn’t intensify because of the supposed breaking of the General Strike in 1926 by Millwall supporting dockers, which is almost certainly an urban myth.

Instead it had its own organic momentum based on sporting rivalry between two close-knit communities.

The clubs competed against each other in various local leagues eagerly and sometimes bitterly if match reports from the time are to be believed.

And it should be remembered Millwall were the opponents who graced the first ever fixture at West Ham United’s Boleyn Ground in September 1904.

This is the 99th meeting between the two and Millwall have the advantage with 38 wins, with the 1960s still the only decade the clubs haven’t met since that first ever meeting.

Yet, what of the bad side?

I am referring to the hideous parody West Ham have become of themselves.

The scriptwriters of Eastenders and the cockney mafia in the tabloid press and their mantra of ‘it’s us wot won the World Cup’ should take a fair amount of the blame for this.

I don’t know about you but it’s hard not to cringe when some mockney plasterer from Essex starts waxing lyrical about East End boys, pwopa geezers and how the ’Ammers won it in 1966.

Yep, I said Hammers, or the 'Appy 'Ammers as they like to be known.

We expect that kind of post Euro96 nonsense from the likes of Palace and Arsenal, but not them lot.

But then again they do attract a strange and eclectic fan base these days.

Mixed in with the plasterers from Basildon and the fake tanned posers from Billericay are the middle-class kids from the home counties.

Funny enough, though, every single one of them takes fashion tips from Alfie Moon and whether they are in the supermarket, in the pub or at a christening, they are bedecked in West Ham merchandise from head to toe.

They must think it evokes an image as a salt of the earth, sugar borrowing, mum-loving cockney, rather than of a badly dressed chav from Essex.

Still, at least they are passionate about their team, so passionate that they have poured all of their efforts into having just one song and once took 10,000 fans to Wigan – according to one Hammer talking to Sky Sports, and clearly missing from his village.

They are a big club, though, and the four relegations to this level in under 25 years in no way distracts from this fact, nor does last night’s 5-1 walloping at Ipswich.

And most big clubs sell their promising youth products to divisional rivals at the first opportunity, that’s just sensible planning.

West Ham are also a club which attracts headlines, be it for cheating their way out of relegation or trying to bully Leyton Orient out of existence, they are box office.

Hopefully all of the headlines on Saturday will be about a coupon busting win for the Lions, though.

God knows we need it.

Typical small minded sarf Lahhndan twat, which just about sums up the pikeys and their stone age troll supporters

mottinghammer wrote:Typical small minded sarf Lahhndan twat, which just about sums up the pikeys and their stone age troll supporters

I think you give them far too much credit

That really got my back up, finguck tosser.....and wot Motty said.

Great idea forbidding the sale of alcohol in and around the ground on
match day. Not so sure about publicising it though.

The only way the players can make for tuesday result is by going out AND thrashing the scum live on TV !

The team and formation I would go with against the Scum is : 442 -
Green,McCartney,Tomkins,Reid,O`Brien,Taylor,Nolan,Noble,Faubert,Cole and Maynard SUBS:Boffin,Lansbury,Vaz te,Collison and Hall

Sub 1 : Vaz te on for Cole with about 20mins to go
Sub 2 : Lansbury on for Faubert with about 20mins to go
Sub 3 : Hall on for Taylor with about 10mins to go

Really looking forward to this game to see what kind of reception the players get after tuesday and what kind of mind set they have going into the game - wether it be going out right from the 1st wistle to attack and score as many goals as possible to inflict the scoreline that ipswich did to us on to millwall or go out and just sit back and wait to counter attack them ???!? - I hope it the 1st get as many goals as possible from the 1st wistle

Isn't this lovely Looking forward to this one and hoping it will be on TV in Norway, where I will be at this time.

I would like to see:

Green

O'Brien--Faye--Tomkins--McCartney

Faubert--Noble--Nolan--Taylor

Baldock -- Maynard

Hate it when we're on TV.
Always seem to embarrass us.
Fingers crossed.

I don't want Faubert, Collison, Lansbury or Reid anywhere near the starting line-up

Green
O'Brien Tomkins Faye McCartney
Vaz Te Nolan Diop Taylor
Cole Baldock

Very attacking admittedly but with the security of Diop to protect the back four. Almost a 4-1-3-2 formation

Subs: Pick 5 from Maynard, Reid, Faubert, Lansbury, Noble, Collison. Keeper? Who knows with Sam

Sam Allardyce's spoke to the assembled press ahead on Thursday ahead of Saturday's visit of Millwall.
The West Ham United manager was asked to summarise how he thought the transfer window had gone for the Hammers and also how he plans to slot his three newest signings into his squad.
How pleased were you with the business you did on deadline day?
SA: I was really pleased. It was a difficult day made more difficult by our result at the end of the evening. The last day was very fruitful and was a product of the long hard w**k we did when the window opened and the continued negotiations through most of the January window apart from Revel Morrison who came up and was moved on pretty quickly when we thought he might join us. We were pleased and glad to recruit three new talented players.
Are you confident Nicky Maynard can continue his goalscoring form at the top of the table?
SA: I know both he and Ricardo Vaz Te are very excited about their moves and we want them to carry on where they left off with their former clubs and that's scoring goals. With no disrespect to Bristol and Barnsley we feel that they we can create them more goalscoring options and they should be in the position to score more goals hopefully. We have been short of scoring goals but we haven't been short of creating chances so hopefully these two lads can help us in that department and get more points on this board.
Is Nicky Maynard Premier League quality?
SA: We won't know that until we all get there. He's never played there but the indicators are good. Vaz has already played in the Premier League while he was with me at Bolton so he knows what it's all about and then hopefully Ravel can prove his talent at first-team level at some stage. The squad is good and healthy now and there's plenty of selection options for me and that'll be proven between now and the 28 April.
What has helped the dramatic improvement in Ricardo Vaz Te?
SA: Maturity. That talented player I managed in my time at Bolton has cast off and gone through the ringer. He's been in the wilderness in Greece and into Scotland and come back to where the best football is played- England. It's been decided within himself that he must make the best of his talents. He's at a good age and he's seen an awful lot of ups and downs in his career. Keith Hill has mentored him very well at Barnsley and he scored a lot of goals for them in all competitions and we got a really good price because he is in the last months of his contracts as we have done with Nicky.
I just think he's grown up and matured and he's in a position where it all looked so easy for him in the early years because he was so talented. He just thought it was going to arrive for him and unfortunately it didn't. The real problem is that he was going to get there but then he had a knee injury that lingered on and then he had a change of manager when I left and the previous manager didn't fancy him as much as I did.
Ravel Morrison is a great talent. Is it going to be a challenge for you to manage him?
SA: When I get to know him and the other players get to know him we'll find out in the next few weeks or so. Ravel is a player for the near future. He isn't for right now but at this stage he's got a lack of first-team football on a regular basis. We will try to asses that and see if we can use that ability and see if we can use it sooner rather than later. That's what we want to try to do for him and him for us. That'll be an interesting job over the coming weeks and months and bring out that talent on a regular basis.
You've managed lively characters - can you bring out the best out of them on the pitch?
SA: It would appear he is from what Sir Alex has told me. He said the best thing is for him to get away from Manchester and the places that have been causing him one or two problems. That'll be the case and we can benefit from that. Hopefully we can guide him to be a good human being as well as being a good professional.
After the defeat at Ipswich why didn't you sign a defender?
SA: Because we've got the best defence in the league and I think Ipswich Town was the first time that our defensive deficiencies have been exposed. We had a really off day and they exploited it to the highest level they possibly could. Other than that our defensive record has been the basis of our success this season and it was a bad day for all concerned. Let's get over it and let's show everybody why we're top at our big derby game on Saturday morning at Upton Park.
Are you looking forward to the game?
SA: Casting our mind back to the last game it all went very well on and off the field, apart from at the end when we didn't convert one of our chances and it ended in a 0-0 draw. The game panned out as I thought it would. Millwall were using the atmosphere and the players were giving 100 per cent like ours were. When the game died down a bit we started to exploit some of the spaces but we couldn't find the goal we were looking for. I think it will be the same on Saturday.
Do you have any message to any supporters coming to the game on Saturday?
SA: Just do the same as last time. I wasn't told of any incident in the last game and it was superbly planned and policed by everybody and everything went according to plan. I just hope it goes the same on Saturday. People have to be responsible for their actions including me as a manager, the players on the pitch and the supporters who come to watch the game. It will be live on TV and we'll be portraying our football to people around the globe and we want to put on a good show and a good spectacle for the right reasons.

Dont look like there will be any wardrobe on display, which is a massive loss. I think he will play Vaz Te and Maynard, and I think baldock will be the loser up front. Vaz Te playing out wide and Noble dropping into the Diop role.

We need some goals from open play to give the side (and supporters) confidence, and a clean sheet is imperative after the midweek shambles.

Some answers from the the Lions Den Chat


Bushwacker63
You'll go up as Chumpionship champs and we'll be in the Chumpionship for a while yet either way.

We're a different team with Hendo but not to expect anything from UP, after all, we're hardly Aldershot.

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Sandersteadlion ( Admin )
Very kind of you geezer. If you don't go straight back it will only be your own fault. You are well bankrolled and have a glut of talent. I expect you to be in the premiership next season.

As for us, we have got some passionate players and I expect us to avoid relegation. In doing so I expect a point next weekend.


kerrylion
f*ck Off........


Sandersteadlion
Lets hope we can pull off a result, we need it more than them...............

Next stop Peterborough Chat

Does Kerrylion know you?