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Things had not improved a great deal when Manchester City went to the new Den, just down the road, at a crossroads moment in their history. How Taylor Swift, a bad bus journey and a goldfish bowl intensified Liverpool's modern Manchester rivalry One of those fans was Sean Riley, a City fan who had not missed a game for 12 seasons and was desperate to keep his record intact. He managed to find a way in and continue an unbroken run of loyal support only broken by another fan ban – when he failed to get in to CSKA Moscow in 2014.
After Palace, City went on a remarkable run, winning 19 of the remaining 24 games, winning the league by ten points and scoring 108 goals, with the brilliant Goater netting 32 of them. The journalist and his daughter were so upset by the constant racial abuse being dished out to the City players that he asked a steward if they could leave their seats and go to the family stand. In terms of positive turning points, I would say the game at Millwall, when we had to go down there – a tough place to go,” he said. He wouldn't speak to me about it... and I wouldn't speak to him about it': Micah Richards on the dark side of the game he loves The three points belonged to the Blues and, while they narrowly lost their next game, another exhausting trip to south London four days later, to play Crystal Palace, the Millwall result was crucial.City chairman David Bernstein also remembers the night well, as he was on the team bus as it made its way through south London, like a stagecoach with a cavalry escort rattling through Apache country. The striker finished neatly, and then set off for the empty away stand, where the City fans should have been.
Two years earlier, when City and Millwall met at Maine Road, down in Division Two, a particularly inventive piece of vandalism by some Blues fans had led to serious trouble. It was not going well. The Blues had lost six of their first 20 games and were seven points behind leaders Burnley – and defeat at The Den would have seen Millwall leapfrog them into fourth place, and City plummet to ninth. Him and Shaun Goater had got all the racist crap, and just played through it. They ignored it, for what it was, and did their stuff on the pitch.After the game, we had to walk through a restaurant in the executive area and we took a fair bit of abuse there as well – but that just made it a real us against them situation.” Shaun Wright-Phillips of Manchester City beats Ryan Green of Millwall to score the winning goal (Image: ALLSPORT)
It was nowhere near as scary as it used to be and I warmed up with a smile on my face even though one thug in particular was, forgive the pun, trying to get my goat, but failing, of course.It was my first goal but it was great to score there because of all the abuse they were giving our lads,” said Wright-Phillips. “So to put one past them, and for us to beat them at The Den was exceptional – it’s just a pity the City fans weren’t there.” Every game was a bit of them against us for City at that time – the Blues were a scalp. And they had the former England manager and European Footballer of the Year in charge, so no matter where they were, everyone wanted to take them down.” Read More Related Articles In fact, 30 to 40 City fans HAD managed to find their way into the ground, blending in with the locals, desperate not to miss a match which would prove to be a turning point in the season.
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