"We are rivals with Millwall and Palace in in that we are trying to attract supporters fron the same general area. I think we are winning this contest despite being in a lower division, at the moment"
Is that what you consider makes us 3 teams rivals? That we compete for support? I suspect for many of us who go regularly, not one of the 3 clubs had to compete for our support; your Dad/Grandad/Uncle/Friends supported Charlton/Millwall/Palace and you became a fan of that team. Charlton or Palace could offer me free tickets to every game, a free ride & booze and I wouldn't take it.
I thought the rivalry is built up from hundreds/thousands of the fans of the 3 clubs all living in a similar area, growing up with banter, bragging rights, etc & wanting to get one over on eachother. Nothing to do with competing for size of support etc.
I agree with all that you say SLL. Both our clubs attract fans from the same area and once we support one club or the other, we do not switch allegiance not matter what happens or how or why we first followed that club. We may stop going for one reason or another but we do not drift between clubs.. The banter etc is a manifestation of this choice. Each club is competing for fans which is why we have special deals for kids, complimentary tickets given to schools, cheap tickets for certain matches, all to get people through the turnstile to watch Charlton and hopefully to capture them for life.
I wish you guys could forget this crap about Palace etc. At the moment it is Huddersfield, Wednesday, United and MK Dons who are our biggest rivals. I hope that next year it will be the Clubs at the top of the Championship. I always have to laugh when someone comes on here and says 'my best mate is a Millwall fan,' and then proceeds to pile a load of abuse on your best friends Club. Is it a young persons thing ? Or are there old uns like me still thinking they have to hate certain Clubs ? I fell completely in love with the game of football as a child, all I had to do was to choose a Club to support. Negativity is a poison.
So lets forget their geographical location Lets forget the years of misery when we played there Lets forget the sadness I felt when John Humphries signed for them Lets forget the day I saw us loose there on Boxing day without a keeper got frozen threatened and found my car vandalised when I returned to it (1984) Lets forget the play off loss to them Lets forget Dennis in the last minute Lets forget John Fortunes goal that aided their relegation Lets forget Ian Dowie and law suits Lets forget Ron Noades Lets forget Simon Jordon and the Moron quote Lets forget the Sydenham train attack Lets forget the "clowns" jibe on the FLS @ing laughing now" lets forget the delight I felt when they lost on penalties the other evening
Granpa, sorry for the rant but I am not a youngster and do see them as a rival, I cant see that changing with age
I wish you guys could forget this crap about Palace etc. At the moment it is Huddersfield, Wednesday, United and MK Dons who are our biggest rivals. I hope that next year it will be the Clubs at the top of the Championship. I always have to laugh when someone comes on here and says 'my best mate is a Millwall fan,' and then proceeds to pile a load of abuse on your best friends Club. Is it a young persons thing ? Or are there old uns like me still thinking they have to hate certain Clubs ? I fell completely in love with the game of football as a child, all I had to do was to choose a Club to support. Negativity is a poison.
It's not necessarily a young persons thing, Granpa. My Dad is an 89-year-old Charlton supporter who practically spontaneously combusts at the mention of Arsenal. His Dad and Uncle used to watch them on Plumstead Common and his mum worked at the Arsenal, where the team came from. When they moved to Highbury it was seen by many locals as deserting their fans, much like Wimbledon and Milton Keynes. My Grandad was furious and passed that fury down to my dad, who hates the Arsenal now as much as he ever did.
Yep, got to be Palace. All this "negativity is a poison" stuff, come on, it's football. It doesn't affect my life on a daily basis, but do I want to beat Palace and Millwall more than any other team, of course I do. Can you really say that beating Carlisle at home to you means as much as Selhurst or the Den away ? Of course it doesn't and the reason is that clearly those two clubs are our rivals.
I think we all wish Charlton to do better than Millwall and Palace and for them both to falter and fall. The problem is when people describe this wish as hatred. It is not, it is not even dislike, It is just schadenfreude and what better person to supply that glorious feeling than the rival supporter down the road who have been bigging it for no accountable reason.
Whenever I meet Palace & Millwall fans (thru work or socially) my preconception is for Palace fans to be kind of okay, and Millwall fans to be knuckle-dragging bell ends. But 90% of the time it actually transpires to be the other way around.
Palace for me, always despised the fact we shared their ground, makes them feel like we owe them something, despise the fact they have no identity (kit and badge changing galore!) and have a piss poor but ultimately hilarious Ultra section in the crowd.
Millwall have an identity at least, though having a reputation as being 'ard isn't really something I would want associated with Charlton, it's better than having nothing to your name like the Stripey's.
On the subject of Millwall, I hate them because they are the closest team to where I grew up, other than Charlton, and so a lot of people in my school supported them, and playground football would start off being Millwall vs Charlton, so the rivalry was more about that than actual Millwall.
Rivalries are what football is all about, the derbies, the elation when you beat them in a big game, telling your dad 'Charlton only drew today but it's ok Palace and Millwall lost', seeing a Palace or Millwall fan in the street and smile to yourself knowing they support an inferior club to you, I LOVE IT
All this "negativity is a poison" stuff, come on, it's football. It doesn't affect my life on a daily basis,
it used to, in the late 70's the rivalry between us a Millwall would continue on friday and saturday nights in pubs around Charlton and Greenwich. They would turn up one week and the compliment would be returned a couple of weeks later down the old kent road.
It does seem to be part of human nature to hate clubs closest to you. Newcastle-Sunderland, Arsenal-Spurs, Derby-Forest, Southampton-Portsmouth etc. They all have fierce rivalries in which each considers their neighbours 'scum'.
There must be something deeply primal in it, probably going back to early man and fights for resources and mating partners. Probably still is for Millwall.
Thanks SE7 and Terry, your rant as you describe it has no connection to rivalry, it's pure hate, therefore for me you make them sound like enemies. For instance the thugs who perpetrated the criminal attack on the train can't be described as rivals, they are simply obnoxious criminals. True rivalry has no place in that sort of behaviour. Anyway, I'm out of here to make love not war, it's more fun and it makes you feel better.
Thanks SE7 and Terry, your rant as you describe it has no connection to rivalry, it's pure hate, therefore for me you make them sound like enemies. For instance the thugs who perpetrated the criminal attack on the train can't be described as rivals, they are simply obnoxious criminals. True rivalry has no place in that sort of behaviour. Anyway, I'm out of here to make love not war, it's more fun and it makes you feel better.
Otherside of the river but west ham and us share the shortest distance, I am surprised this rivalry is not more heated as you would expect. The biggest rivalries of football has to be:
Fenerbache - galatassary (Spelt wrong) Celtic - rangers Millwall - west ham Manu - Liverpool El classico
No worris Granpa its all about opinions and enjoy your love making but be carefull at your age!
Im an old soldier who has fired at and been fired on so I think our versions of enemies may differ somewhat. I would certainly never considered shooting a Palace fan! I guess we just interprete the words hate and enemy differently, each to their own
When Millwall tell you we aren't their main rivals it's a load of bollox of course.....they try that one just to be-little us (as if they ever could of course) I can 'guarantee you' that we ARE their main rivals.....whether they like to admit it or not is another matter. The West Ham thing is fairly recent in the scheme of things as they didn't play oneanother for years and years anyway........then a lad got killed on the trains as a result of being chased down by a group of Hammers (in the early to mid-seventies I'd say) and from that the hatred between them really kicked off.......but as an 'on-going' historical rivalry, we certainly are their main ones.
When Millwall tell you we aren't their main rivals it's a load of bollox of course.....they try that one just to be-little us (as if they ever could of course) I can 'guarantee you' that we ARE their main rivals.....whether they like to admit it or not is another matter. The West Ham thing is fairly recent in the scheme of things as they didn't play oneanother for years and years anyway........then a lad got killed on the trains as a result of being chased down by a group of Hammers (in the early to mid-seventies I'd say) and from that the hatred between them really kicked off.......but as an 'on-going' historical rivalry, we certainly are their main ones.
i'm not so sure. They seem to base thier rivalries in the hooligan stakes of which we are not taken very seriously by them. They tried being rivals with Leeds but that fizzled out because they only get 900 tickets for Leeds away and they can't even sell them. I can see a long period of decline for the Lions. What a Shame.
It's Palace for me - Millwall have their very obvious flaws but Palace are bereft of identity, have a pompous and over-inflated sense of themselves where 'passion' is imitated (never realised) in ridiculous stunts like balloon waving, dancing girls and that ridiculous chant they appropriated from the continent but think they invented. Vile. They make me want to vomit. 'South London is ours'? Give me a break.
It's Palace for me - Millwall have their very obvious flaws but Palace are bereft of identity, have a pompous and over-inflated sense of themselves where 'passion' is imitated (never realised) in ridiculous stunts like balloon waving, dancing girls and that ridiculous chant they appropriated from the continent but think they invented. Vile. They make me want to vomit. 'South London is ours'? Give me a break.
Have no worries SE7, it's just a lovely way to spend two minutes. I take your point about being fired at, the worst thing I've been hit by is a champagne cork, and then I didn't get a drink !
Well in that case I'd say that's why you've never grasped the Millsmall thing.....you haven't really lived through it. I'm by no means the eldest of fans.....I was 64 last week. but I've been alive for 64 years of the 107 years of the clubs existence.....which is approaching two thirds of it's history. I'd like to think I've lived through these rivalries and as an ex Covered Ender of many years standing, I think I can say I know what I'm talking about red.
Comments
Millwall have an identity at least, though having a reputation as being 'ard isn't really something I would want associated with Charlton, it's better than having nothing to your name like the Stripey's.
On the subject of Millwall, I hate them because they are the closest team to where I grew up, other than Charlton, and so a lot of people in my school supported them, and playground football would start off being Millwall vs Charlton, so the rivalry was more about that than actual Millwall.
Rivalries are what football is all about, the derbies, the elation when you beat them in a big game, telling your dad 'Charlton only drew today but it's ok Palace and Millwall lost', seeing a Palace or Millwall fan in the street and smile to yourself knowing they support an inferior club to you, I LOVE IT
it used to, in the late 70's the rivalry between us a Millwall would continue on friday and saturday nights in pubs around Charlton and Greenwich. They would turn up one week and the compliment would be returned a couple of weeks later down the old kent road.
There must be something deeply primal in it, probably going back to early man and fights for resources and mating partners. Probably still is for Millwall.
The biggest rivalries of football has to be:
Fenerbache - galatassary (Spelt wrong)
Celtic - rangers
Millwall - west ham
Manu - Liverpool
El classico
Im an old soldier who has fired at and been fired on so I think our versions of enemies may differ somewhat. I would certainly never considered shooting a Palace fan! I guess we just interprete the words hate and enemy differently, each to their own
The West Ham thing is fairly recent in the scheme of things as they didn't play oneanother for years and years anyway........then a lad got killed on the trains as a result of being chased down by a group of Hammers (in the early to mid-seventies I'd say) and from that the hatred between them really kicked off.......but as an 'on-going' historical rivalry, we certainly are their main ones.
being rivals with Leeds but that fizzled out because they only get 900 tickets for Leeds away and they can't even sell them.
I can see a long period of decline for the Lions. What a Shame.
And I'm 24 @SoundAsa£.
I'm by no means the eldest of fans.....I was 64 last week. but I've been alive for 64 years of the 107 years of the clubs existence.....which is approaching two thirds of it's history.
I'd like to think I've lived through these rivalries and as an ex Covered Ender of many years standing, I think I can say I know what I'm talking about red.