Big Millwall Interview: &#8216;I was a rebel and I wasn&#8217;t liked by the powers that ran the club &#8211; but I managed to s

By Tom Appleby & John Kelly

“WHAT it was, was the crowd, the stadium and everything was very intimidating. The look of it. You walk out on the pitch and you think, ‘what the fuck is this?’ They had a reputation of being hard men down Cold Blow Lane. I mean, the name itself, you couldn't have made up a better name to describe it. It was Cold Blow Lane, all right. I liked it.”

Eamon Dunphy joined Millwall in the second season of their historic unbeaten home run, which lasted from August 22, 1964 to January 14, 1967, at the time an English Football League record.

Fifty-nine games, 875 days. Three seasons. Two managers: Billy Gray and Benny Fenton. Back-to-back promotions.

At the start of 1964-65, the Lions were in the Fourth Division after relegation in the previous campaign. They had lost their last home game of the 1963-64 season, 1-0 to Bristol City in front of an attendance of 12,123.

The first home game of the new campaign that August was a 2-2 draw against Torquay United. No Lions fan leaving The Den that Monday evening could have known then that by the time they would next see their team beaten at home in the league, England would be World Cup winners, the word ‘fuck’ would have been spoken for the first time on British television, and The Beatles would be bigger than Jesus.

Dunphy had spent five years at Matt Busby’s Manchester United after leaving Drumcondra in Dublin in the year he turned just fifteen. He shared lodgings with George Best, who was a year younger than him and who would win the European Cup with United less than three years after Dunphy had left Old Trafford for York City.

“It was a big deal and it was extremely competitive,” Dunphy, 80, tells NewsAtDen about his time at United. “There were a lot of great players, many young footballers in England wanted to go to Manchester United. It was two years after the Munich air crash, 1960 when I went. They had the pick of the best English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish players.

“It was very exciting but very demanding at the club because they lost those players in the crash and Busby’s health wasn’t strong in ’59, ’60. The club was going through a rough period and continued to in the early ‘60s. But it was obviously, for a kid, which I was, it was kind of eye-opening and exciting in many ways. They were an interesting five years.

“Of course George was an exception to all the rules, and a good friend and remained a good friend for most of his life, actually.”

Dunphy came across the Lions’ radar at York in 1965-66, the season after Gray’s side had immediately bounced back to the Third Division.

“I played well against Millwall and the manager, Billy Gray, liked what he saw and they bought me,” Dunphy says, before joking: "I wasn't having a stellar career - I don't think they broke the world record for transfers!

“Millwall were in the top three and I was delighted to go. I was going to a bigger club than York. I was going to London. I was going to a club that had a realistic chance of being promoted, which we were, so it was sound. I liked Millwall, it was obviously a rough place and had a reputation.”

Midfielder Dunphy played alongside captain Brian Snowdon, club legend Harry Cripps, and goalkeeper Alex Stepney, the latter who went on to win the First Division and the European Cup with Manchester United and Best.

"The professionalism was superb,” Dunphy says. “Snowdon was a leader. We had some really good players like Keith Weller, Derek Posse, Dennis Burnett, Bryan King who was a goalkeeper who went on and played in the First Division. Cripps was a bulky full-back who put people over the wall now and then."

Millwall exceeded expectations by finishing second for a second consecutive year in 1966, achieving successive promotions while maintaining their unbeaten home record. Despite that, Gray was sacked at the end of the season after a disagreement with the board.

Gray had had a successful playing career at Chelsea, Burnley and Nottingham Forest before joining Millwall as player-manager in 1963.

“He was a real believer in football and he would have gone against what people thought of as the Millwall culture,” Dunphy says. “And he was a very, very good coach, but they sacked him.

"Like Gray, Fenton was a believer in good football. The Millwall reputation, if you like, for kicking people and playing primitive football wasn't really true in the years I was there. Otherwise I wouldn't have been there because I was more a footballer than a kicker. I wasn't the typical Millwall player. I was a playmaker rather than a goalscorer. I didn't get stuck in, but the fans liked me in their own way, I think.”

Millwall continued their unbeaten home run as they established themselves in the top half of the Second Division in 1966-67. They went close to losing it on Saturday, November 26 when Eric Welsh gave Carlisle United the lead in the 66th minute.

Len Julians rescued Fenton’s side with a brace to earn a 2-1 win.

The Lions had three successive home games in December and won all of them, going fifth after beating Norwich City 2-1 on Boxing Day thanks to another double from Julians. Game 59.

They drew their next two away games, at the Canaries and Charlton Athletic, and were up to third after a 2-1 win against Northampton Town at the County Ground, Julians scoring the winner two minutes from time.

The run finally ended on Saturday, January 14, 1967.

Mike Bickle and Alan Banks gave Plymouth Argyle, who were in the bottom half of the table, a shock 2-0 first-half lead. Centre-back Tom Wilson pulled a goal back three minutes into the second half but despite being roared on by the majority of the 16,601 attendance they couldn’t find an equaliser.

The unbeaten run was gone but forever in the history books.

Does Dunphy remember the game?

“Yes, actually, because I was suspended for it, I was watching from the stands” he says, before joking he used to argue that’s why they lost.

“The crowd were very raucous, I think would be a good word, very passionate,” Dunphy says. “It was a great record. And it was a notable thing for a club like Millwall to achieve.”

Dunphy spent nine years at Millwall. They missed out on what would have been a first-ever promotion to the top flight by one point in 1972, before top-half finishes in 1973 and 1974.

"Off the pitch, I was a a bit of a rebel," Dunphy says. "I fought for the apprentices to go to education instead of hanging around cleaning boots. So I was regarded as rebellious and I was left-wing in those days, there were causes like Apartheid [in South Africa]. I wasn't liked by the powers that ran the club, but I managed to survive that.”

The 59 games included 43 wins, 112 goals scored and 35 clean sheets. In keeping with the times, The Football Association marked the achievement by giving each player a gold cigarette lighter.

Dunphy left for Charlton Athletic in 1974, linking up with his friend and former Ireland team-mate Theo Foley, who was the manager of the Addicks and later the assistant manager to George Graham at The Den.

In 1965-66, when Dunphy joined the Lions, the average weekly wage for a footballer in England was £35. It was only four years after the maximum weekly wage cap of £20 had been abolished.

“We should have [been paid more] but it just shows how badly the players of my time were treated,” Dunphy says, “and how right it was to rebel against it, which I did my share of.”

Dunphy retired from playing professional football in 1978 after spells with Reading and Dublin side Shamrock Rovers.

His rebelliousness nature found a different outlet as he became a successful journalist, author, broadcaster and football pundit. Dunphy wrote the seminal book Only a Game? The Diary of a Professional Footballer , an account of the 1973-74 season. The late, great football writer Brian Glanville said it was “the best and most authentic memoir by a professional footballer”.

Dunphy currently writes a weekly column for the Irish Daily Star , with Donald Trump and Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson in the firing line lately.

Perhaps Millwall will feature if Alex Neil leads the side into the Premier League in May.

“I had nine seasons there and they were really on the whole very happy times,” Dunphy says. “I have a great affection for Millwall. I like the Millwall crowd. They didn't always like me but I liked them. They had character and they had humour. The humour was great.

“I love the club and I always look for them on a Saturday to see how they've done, and I'm looking very closely now to see if they can get in the play-offs and maybe even automatically get up. So I am hopeful for them. I have a great deal of fondness for the club and a feeling of goodwill towards the club and hope that they do well. It was really my club more than any other club I played for.”