Stories and Pictures From Rotherham

Our annual match against the Junior Millers took place last week. Having suffered one or two whippings last season the Junior Lions’ old and young teams showed great bouncebackability to win all four of their games. Below some of the team travelling on the official coach tell you about the day.

We left The Den just after 7 o’clock and reached Rotherham at 11.00 am. The coach journey up was good fun for all of us. From the moment we got there everyone connected with the club made us feel very welcome. First we played games with their juniors. At 1.45 pm I was taken to the Millwall dressing room. All of the players were really friendly. I had my photo taken with them and got lots of autographs. Then I went onto the pitch with them for the pre-match warm-up. I’ll never forget Danny Dichio knocking me over. Finally I got to lead the team out with captain Kevin Muscat. I will never be able to thank the Junior Lions enough. I will never forget this day – it was fantastic.
Sam McFarland, age 9 (Mascot)

The day started very early for me. I was woken up at 5.45 am by my day. Red-eyed I got ready to leave. Then we went to the Den and waited to get on the coach. We left Millwall just after 7 o’clock in the morning. Much to my surprise Terry (Junior Lions man) asked me to be ballboy. I said I would love to do it. When we arrived at Millmoor at 11 o’clock we played matches against the juniors of Rotherham United. Then we went for a drink and food in their family room – wish we had one. At 2.45 pm my dream came true for being a ballboy. Thanks for making it such a great day.
Benjamin Cox, age 9 from Kent

…It took 4 hours to get to Rotherham. When we got there we went in their clubhouse and were given drinks. Then we went in the gym and played football. We won all 4 games. I played in the last game. It was fun. Then we had some food in their clubhouse before going into the ground and watching the game. I liked it when Dichio smiled at me. After we went to say goodbye to Rotherham, then we went home.
Georgina

…We played 4 games which we won all of. The actual Lions game was good. I didn’t think Millwall played very well, but Ifill was excellent and scored a great goal. Right at the death of the game Rotherham’s Sedgewick got an equaliser and in the stoppage time we couldn’t grab a winner.
Gerry Gonnella

…Before the game the Millwall Junior Lions played matches against the young Rotherham supporters, with 2 age groups playing two 10 minute matches each. The scores were Older Junior Lions: 6-1, 6-1 and youngers: 4-2, 2-0. All Millwall wins. After spending a bit more time in the Junior Millers club room eating the food they provided for us we entered the turnstiles. Before the game there was a war to get Marshall’s gloves. When the game started it wasn’t long before we were singing loudly (nearly blowing down their stadium ha ha ha). There were not many chances in the first half as we were under quite a bit of pressure. In the second half we were playing better and mid-half Ifill put the ball in the back of the net. After he missed another chance and a minute later Rotherham scored. The game ended 1-1 after 2 minutes time added on and we made the journey back home.
Callum Roberts

Click here to return to front page