This Millwall shirt, a standard late-60s long sleeved crew neck, found fame not only thanks to Millwall’s “Class of ‘71”, but also by its association with Derby County. It was April 1969, Brian Clough’s white-clad side had just clinched the Division 2 title and were due at The Den. The Lions’ players, whose home strip was also white at that time, lined up at the tunnel and sportingly gave the Derby team a guard of honour as they ran on to the pitch wearing…Millwall’s red away kit. A cock up by the Derby kit man (possibly still thinking the Lions played in blue) meant he hadn’t packed the Rams’ change strip. To make matters worse, the mistake was immortalised in playgrounds throughout the land as the photographer for a football card series was at the ground that day to capture player mugshots. Knowing his insistence on his players’ immaculate presentation at all times you can bet Cloughie was seething. It wasn’t all bad for Derby though – they beat Millwall 1–0.
Worn in: Away wins at Bolton (4–0) and Preston (1–0) – both also in the 1968–69 campaign.
Worn by: Eamonn Dunphy, Derek Possee, Harry Cripps
For more on Millwall’s kits from the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s pick up the latest edition of Backpass magazine – the leading retro football mag – on sale now!!
It’s strange that Millwall had a red away shirt considering their close proximity to Charlton
And on the player mugshots surely Derby could have just popped on the regular home shirt if they packed it.
You’re right David, its not often close rivals have away kits in the other club’s colours. Re your other point, I think back then there just wasn’t the care/interest in the symbolism of kits, I guess they were just functional items. But as I said you might have thought Clough would have insisted on them switching shirts for the pics. Actually, by coincidence in the latest edition of Backpass there is also a feature on AB&C who actually produced the cards I referred to. It seems they paid each player £10 to include them in the card series.
Re teams wearing rivals’ colours as away kits, there is another strand to this story in that Derby were effectively wearing Nottingham Forest’s colours, something they’re clearly not keen on given what happened in 1989!
I don’t think the rivalry really kicked in until Forest fans rammed (intentional pun alert!) it down Derby fans throats that they were European Champions and their beloved Clough had taken Forest there.
Given that the jersey is from the pre-colour tv era should the image not be in black and white.
No doubt Ciaran,that Eamon Dunphy lit up stadiums with his silky skills in this kit…..NOT!!
Dunphy was lucky that the idea of the football studio panel didnt come into existence until the 1970 world cup otherwise he would have been on the receiving end of ronaldo/rio ferdinand/niall quinn type a”’ kicking id say.
wonder how he would have analyzed this kit.
Maybe
“The millwall jersey was a disgrace.It was a disgrace to football.Hold on let me finish John”
or
“A good jersey, but not a great jersey John.
Wonder did he bend at the knee at John Giles when he played for Leeds the way he does at the rte studio.
Bill “Worst kit ever Eamon??”
Eamon “A boil on the arse of the world of fashion Bill”
Now if only I could get RTÉ on this side of the Irish Sea, just for Dunphy’s rants 😀
Never mind Cloughie being unhappy about the kit situation, spare a thought for Millwall’s fans that day – it’s bad enough when the opposition team has to borrow one of your change kits, but when they proceed to beat your team wearing it………. that’s something else!
Also, the talk of teams having away kits in the colours of their rivals is an interesting one? How many other teams have done that? Quite a few I’d imagine!
I was at the Leeds v Millwall league match in April 1987
and Millwall trotted out in Leeds’ yellow/blue ‘WGK’away kit from 1984/85. Possibly (from a Millwall fans view) their worst ever away kit! See youtube Leeds United season review 1986/87 part 2/4 (13mins).