Big Millwall interview: ‘We were in a meeting, I fell asleep and Sid stinks of vodka and Red Bull’

By John Kelly “WE were in a meeting, and we’d got in at six in the morning. I fell asleep in the meeting, Sid stinks of vodka and Red Bull. That’s triggered it for Neil, he knew we’d been out.” Alfie Pavey’s Millwall career came at an interesting time in the club’s history. The appointment of Neil Harris could be seen as a reaction to the Ian Holloway era. A long-term plan versus who knows what’s going to happen next. Organisation instead of chaos. And discipline. In front of this reporter, Harris once stopped a youth player and asked him what time it was. “Quarter to 10,” came the response. “Training starts at ten, you should have been here 20 minutes ago.” “I’ll have some of that,” a grinning Harris said to this writer as we went off to do our weekly interview. It was a quick but effective reminder to not just that youngster but everyone around the training ground about what was expected. It was also an interesting insight into man-management and how Harris was always switched on, never missing an opportunity to show his authority and not let standards slip. But Harris also knew that sometimes players do slip up. Harris wasn’t exactly a hermit in his younger days and he certainly knew how to enjoy a night out. So maybe that was in his thoughts when Pavey and Sid Nelson found themselves in hot water in that under-21 team meeting after a night – and morning – out in New Cross. Nelson had already made his first-team debut by then, as an 18-year-old in December 2014. Holloway handed him the captain’s armband when the centre-back was just 19. Whatever about the wisdom of loading that kind of pressure on the boyhood Lions fan, he was seen by many as a future long-term skipper. But Pavey, having yet to play for the senior team, was in a more precarious position. Scholars and under-21s can barely afford to put a foot wrong as they work towards the next contract, but a night on the tiles could have been a big mis-step for Pavey. But a combination of his and Nelson’s poker-face response, and Harris’ understanding, saw the pair escape without any damage done to their careers. “Me and Sid used to go out quite a lot. It was a Bank Holiday and we were youth team players and ended up going Venue in New Cross,” Pavey tells NewsAtDen. “We were summoned into the office with Birch [assistant manager Marc Bircham] and Ian Holloway,” Pavey tells NewsAtDen. “And Birch is like, ‘I know the CCTV guy there, we’ve seen you in there’. We were like, ‘no, we weren’t in there, you can check the CCTV’. They didn’t do ID at the time so that’s where they shot themselves in the foot. Birch said, ‘we checked the IDs, you’re on the system.’ And we were, like, ‘nah, you didn’t check the IDs because they don’t scan there!’ So we got away with it. Neil didn’t bollock us, he knew the craic. He was as good as gold. “He told us there is a time and a place. We were still learning as youngsters and there is a time and a place to go out. We changed that routine where if we had a [21s] game on a Monday or a Tuesday we wouldn’t be going out on a Friday or Saturday night and we especially wouldn’t be going out on Bank Holidays.” Pavey, a striker over six feet tall, had joined the Lions at the relatively late age of 17 in May 2013. He had caught the eye of Millwall, who were then managed by Kenny Jackett, after scoring 124 goals as Maidstone United won the Conference Youth Alliance title. Pavey signed a two-year scholarship and his first involvement in the first-team match-day squad came the following January when Harris, serving as interim boss after the sacking of Steve Lomas, put him on the bench against Leicester City on New Year’s Day, a 3-1 defeat. At that time, there was no real link, emotional or even physical, between the young players coming through and the first team. “At that time the changing rooms were very segregated so the youth teams would have to stay away from the first team,” Pavey says. “That’s what Chopper did, he brought everyone together [when he became first-team boss permanently]. “Previously we’d have to collect our lunch through a window because we weren’t allowed in the canteen. We had to wait for the whole first team to eat, so that could be three o’clock and we’re all starving waiting to eat. We then had to eat in a separate room. But Chopper said, no, we treat everybody the same. [caption id="attachment_118082" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Former Lions boss Neil Harris. Photo: Millwall FC[/caption] “I think the turnover of players under Steve Lomas and Ian Holloway was ridiculous. I think it was something like 42 players. (Forty players made at least one league appearance under Lomas and Holloway in 2013-14, compared to 29 in Harris’ first season in charge in 2015-16.) “You just end up getting a bad changing room where you’ve got a load of egos. You can’t keep 42 players happy, that’s impossible. You’ve got to get your squad back to 22 or 25, or 18 seniors and your 10 youngsters, for example. “That was what [Harris] did and he created a togetherness where everybody at the club bought into him. From the kitchen to the kit man, everyone. Him being a legend I think also helped the situation. “But he’s honest and he told everyone how it was. He said, ‘listen, we might not get promoted but the one thing we’ll do is work hard. If you don’t want to work hard, there’s the door.’ He earned respect like that straightaway and no one could complain. “What he achieved at the football club in turning it around in a time when it was in a mess, you really have to take your hat off to him.” After he took over from the sacked Holloway with 10 games left in 2014-15, Harris set out his vision by discarding those he saw as having no part to play in the club’s future and bringing in some of the younger players. Millwall were already relegated when they faced Wolves at Molineux on the last day of the season. Nelson, Jack Powell and Aiden O’Brien started, with Pavey, Jamie Philpot, Ben Thompson and Jordan Archer on the bench. O’Brien scored in the 58 th minute and then Philpot in the 82 nd with his first touch in senior football less than two minutes after coming on. Pavey also made his debut, replacing the unfortunate Philpot, who was injured with a minute left. “Not many youngsters had been in the squad, I think I was one of the first ones,” Pavey says. “Before that not many youngsters were being given a chance. “I’d done quite well in the Youth Cup. Steve Lomas put me in the squad, I think it was Middlesbrough at home. Me and Fred [Onyedinma] were the first two to push on, Fred made his debut at Southend away. “Ian Holloway came in and Steve Morison got his chance [in 2013-14]. Although I was travelling with the squad for the first time people just kept overtaking me. So I was spending my time out on loan trying to get games and prove myself that way. “I remember the Wolves game, I think we knew we were going to be on the bench, me, Jamie and Thommo. “Jamie came on and then Thommo was standing on the touchline waiting to come on. But obviously Jamie did his knee so I ended up coming on. Me and Thommo were meant to be going out that night but he had the right hump! We joke about it to this day because at the end of the day he’s gone on to do what he did for Millwall Football Club. It didn’t turn out too bad for him, did it?” Harris’ assistant, Dave Livermore, always told players they couldn’t consider themselves a proper professional until they had made 100 competitive appearances. [caption id="attachment_121452" align="aligncenter" width="1199"] Sid Nelson was one of a number of players who broke through in 2015-16. Photo: Millwall FC[/caption] Pavey didn’t get carried away after his Lions bow, but he did think he would be more involved in the following campaign. “After I made my debut and we went down I thought I’d be in and around the first-team squad, which I was,” Pavey says. “I was travelling with them the next year, I went on tour with them to Portugal. And I made a number of sub appearances. “I wouldn’t say you think you’ve made it [after your debut] but you look at it, you’re a youngster, all eyes are on you and you’ve got a chance here and it’s down to you to take that chance. “But for me it was coming on for three or four minutes at the end of a game. You’re hoping for your chance but it doesn’t really work like that so it was hard for me to make an impact. Sid’s debut was 90 minutes, Ben came on against Southampton for 30 minutes so had time to get into the game. Whereas I didn’t feel like I had that opportunity.” Pavey, who was contracted until 2017, turned 20 in October 2015 as Millwall set about adjusting to and trying to get promoted from League One. He made six appearances, all off the bench, before going on loan to Aldershot. The following campaign, 2016-17, Pavey played just once for the Lions, as an 83 rd -minute substitute for Joe Martin with Harris’ side trailing 2-1 to Bury in the November snow at Gigg Lane. Callum Butcher scored the equaliser in the 86 th minute before O’Brien got the winner in injury-time, ripping off his shirt and leaping into the limbs in the away end. But that proved to be the eighth and final appearance of Pavey’s Millwall career. Pavey had a feeling he didn’t have a long-term future at the club after academy players such as Tom King, Kyron Farrell and Kris Twardek started games in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy – well down in fourth place in Harris’ list of priorities – while Pavey didn’t see any action in the competition. “I had never started a game for Millwall but I thought I might just get a game in one of those trophies. “I remember Harry Smith got chosen to play at Luton over me and I was on the bench. It was sort of at that point that I sat there and thought to myself, ‘I think my time’s up’. “It was soon after that I went to Chopper’s office, it was around January time. I just asked him straight out and we had about a half an hour’s conversation where he explained to me he didn’t see me in the Millwall team going forward. It was short and sweet like that. “I was never bitter about it because I looked up to him, he was my manager for the 23s and he helped me with so many different issues that I’d never have a bad word to say about him no matter what.” Although it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, Pavey appreciated that Harris was up front with him. Pavey says: “Nowadays you get a lot of managers in football where they, not sell you the dream, but they lead you on and lead you on. It’s good to find an honest manager and if a manager is honest with you then you can have no complaints. “I’ve experienced it even in my non-league career so far. I’ve had certain managers that haven’t been honest with me. ‘If you don’t want me, just tell me you don’t want me. That’s not your issue, I’ve obviously not done enough to prove to you that I should be at this football club.’ “Neil’s man-management skills were very good and that’s what I appreciated about him. “At the end of the day you’re getting released because you’ve not been good enough. I obviously wasn’t good enough to make that next step up. He’s the manager, he’s the only one that matters so if I’m not changing that opinion then I can’t do anything about it.” Pavey was officially released when his contract ended on July 1, 2017. “It’s very difficult because you wake up every morning for the previous four years and it was there, that’s your routine every single day,” Pavey say. “Waking up, you know you’re going to that workplace. “It was a bit strange all of a sudden not going to that training ground, not having the match-days on a Saturday. “Mentally, you just find the world is coming down on you, really. You’re just thinking, where do you go next? “And you’re a young kid. No one wants to touch a young kid, really, or give a young kid a chance when he’s not done anything in the game at that moment. That was the tough side to it.” At least Pavey has some special memories from his time with the club he supports. His last involvement with the Lions was at Wembley when, even though he wasn’t in the squad, he in no way felt left out in the post-match celebrations following the 1-0 win over Bradford City. “I think it would be fair to say that first season the football club wasn’t ready to go back up,” Pavey says. “Chopper and Livers did well in their first year to achieve what they achieved in getting to the final, but obviously Barnsley were on a fantastic run after being bottom of the league in December. “But that second year they knew that they were ready and this was their moment to go up. Obviously I was not in the squad for either of those games but I was still part of it in terms of being together, [Harris] brought us on the pitch after the game, he made sure everyone at that football club was involved in some way. We all went back to the hotel with our families to celebrate. Even after the first one everyone had to go back to the hotel and have a drink. “I had some great experiences.” Since leaving Millwall, Pavey has had a successful career in National League football, playing well over 100 games and scoring more than 50 goals. Former Millwall striker Lee Gregory and current Leicester City centre-forward Jamie Vardy were both 25 when they were plucked from non-league football. Gregory was the Lions’ top league goal-scorer in each of his five seasons at the club, while his former Halifax team-mate Vardy set a record for scoring in consecutive Premier League games (11) when helping the Foxes win the title in 2015-16. But Pavey knows his time in the EFL has probably passed. “I’ve accepted it [not getting back into the Football League] the last couple of years, really,” Pavey admits. “I look at myself and think am I doing enough. For me at the moment I’ve got to provide for my family and nowadays with the money that gets thrown around in football are they going to take a chance on a non-league striker or are they just going to go and buy someone for 500 grand or a million? “Me, my mindset is my family and that’s all that really matters. I just play football because I love playing it.” As well as playing (he joined National League South side Farnborough this summer), Pavey is continuing to gain his coaching qualifications with the next badge to aim for the fourth of five on the ladder, Uefa A. “It’s always nice to play under different managers because you learn different things,” Pavey says. “I’ve been treated differently by different managers throughout my whole career. I’ve picked things up: ‘I wouldn’t do that as a manager.’ Pavey says he favours a system with “a big man through the middle with two wide men. I love that. Not Millwall style as such, but it’s how I like to play myself. “Whenever I join a football club I always make sure to get something where I join the academy [to coach]. Non-league clubs have little academies so I’ll always do the scholars.” And, who knows, Pavey could be back at the club he supports one day. “I’ll just keep ticking over because the minute you stop coaching you lose yourself.” Image: Millwall FC

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