One of English football's most notorious rivalries will be renewed this weekend after a 14-year pause.
Come Saturday lunchtime, The Den will play host to the 100th meeting between London foes Millwall and West Ham United. Going by the previous 99, much of the focus will be in the stands as well as on the pitch.
The last time these two sides played each other was at West Ham's former home of Upton Park in 2012. Authorities' preventative measures on that occasion included an alcohol ban in the stadium as well as the adjacent pubs and off-license stores that day. The away end capacity was significantly reduced and the players were asked to keep their goal celebrations in check.
Those precautions were the legacy of their 2009 meeting in the League Cup. The incidents of that night are best borne out in the statistics -- 13 arrests, three pitch invasions, two allegations of racist abuse and one stabbing. West Ham won 3-1 but were subsequently fined £115,000 by the FA after being found guilty on two charges of crowd disturbance.
Fan violence has been an unfortunate and yet near-constant part of this fixture. As hooliganism plagued English football in the 1970s and 1980s, the fanbases of West Ham and Millwall were often at the forefront. The 1978 meeting between these two sides was the first instance of a police helicopter being deployed at a football match in England.
Vestiges of that violent past haven't been easy to shake off. During the 2006 World Cup, a screening of England's win over Paraguay in Canary Wharf was marred by a clash between hundreds of West Ham and Millwall supporters. It led to the screening being ended 10 minutes before full-time.
"Nothing much changes -- 100 years on and the two clubs were still scrapping on the Isle of Dogs," author James Sarfas wrote in "Forged on the Docks," a book on West Ham and Millwall's rivalry.
Winding back the 'dock'
West Ham and Millwall were formed three miles and 10 years apart.
The workers of canning company J.T. Morton's Isle of Dogs factory founded Millwall Athletic in 1885 while Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, who were situated down the river in Canning Town, started a football team for their workers in 1895.
Millwall drew support from the nearby Millwall Ironworks, so the rivalry between these two teams was fueled by the fact that they had competing business interests. Their first competitive fixture came in the FA Cup in 1899, which Millwall went on to win 2-1.
Thames Ironworks were re-christened West Ham in 1900 and made Upton Park their home in 1904. Millwall moved across the river from the Isle of Dogs to south London in 1910 and set up shop at The Den.
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While tensions between the fanbases began to surface in the 1906-07 season, the rivalry went up a notch during the General Strike in 1926. Dockyard workers were among the 1.5 million people involved in the strike, however there were allegations that those on the Isle of Dogs continued to work.
Despite these divisions, Millwall played some of their home games at Upton Park during World War 2 due to a fire destroying the Main Stand.
The decades of extreme violence and hooliganism
Millwall and West Ham faced each other only four times between 1970 and 1990, yet it was during this period that the violence between the two fanbases was at its worst.
One of the first major incidents took place during the testimonial of Millwall defender Harry Cripps at The Den in 1972. Per Sarfas' book, West Ham fans charged at the Millwall end and "glass bottles, knives, darts and snooker balls" were among the weapons used in the clashes.
Four years on, Millwall fan Ian Pratt died during a violent fight between the fan groups at New Cross Station. Both teams weren't even playing each other that night, but ended up clashing due to the fact that West Ham were playing away at Charlton Athletic and had to pass through the Millwall heartland on their way home.
Their meeting in the Second Division in 1978 was their first competitive meeting in 19 years. In the weeks leading up to the game, a pamphlet was passed around The Den calling for the death of a West Ham fan to avenge Pratt. The subsequent heated affair at Upton Park saw 70 people being arrested.
In 1986, a West Ham fan was murdered by a Millwall supporter near Embankment station.
The clashes between the two hooligan groups -- West Ham's Inter City Firm and the Millwall Bushwackers -- in the '80s were so notorious that they were documented in the popular-2005 film "Green Street" starring Elijah Wood.
The Taylor Report of 1990 and its safety recommendations for stadiums, combined with government legislation like the Football Spectators Act, helped massively reduce hooliganism in English football. However, as the 2009 League Cup game showed, there has remained an edge to matches between West Ham and Millwall.
Ahead of Saturday's meeting, the London Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying a Section 35 dispersal order is in place to give the authorities the power to "to remove anyone causing disorder."
Dawn of a new era
A lot has changed since the last time these two sides met. West Ham have moved to the London Stadium, won a European trophy, produced and sold a £100 million player in Declan Rice as well as seen a change in their ownership structure.
Millwall, meanwhile, have stabilised in the Championship and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 24 years last season. Their 83-point tally was their highest ever in the Championship. Off the field, too, they have put in great efforts to clean up their reputation and in 2017 won the award for Family Club of the Year at the EFL Awards.
The Hammers come into the clash top of the table while Millwall lie in 11th after a middling start to their campaign. However, this is arguably the closest the two of them have come to being on an equal footing in over two decades.
Millwall vs. West Ham isn't your usual derby. And, Lions boss Alex Neil knows that.
"When a game like that means so much to your fan base, there is always extra importance. You can't help that from happening, so there's no point in me trying to talk the game down," he said earlier this week.
"The game is what it is. There's not been a lot of them of late, and what it means is when you do play, it means that there's going to be a lot of focus on it. There's going to be a lot of tension on it. There's going to be a lot of passion in the game."
The Den will be febrile on Saturday afternoon. The hope is that the passion doesn't spill onto the streets.
