On Saturday I watched Charlton gallantly win a stunning 0-0 victory at the Den and on Sunday I went to Spurs v Arsenal with Gooner friend who had a spare ticket. Standing in the away end at both games showed the marked difference between the South and North London derby matches – on and off the pitch.
Whilst both had a similar level of passion, the noise was certainly greater at WHL than the tool box – probably because there was an extra 20,000 people there, the grounds acoustics are much better and both teams fans are able to memorise more than one song (seriously, why do Millwall only sing that “Miiiii” nonsense ?) . What really struck me however was the difference in chants, or rather the nature of the chants. Whilst Arsenal’s songs were exclusively football based taunts at their rivals (mainly revolving around their greater success than their rivals) and Spurs’ seemed obsessed with chanting anything and everything to demean the worlds most discriminated against ex-footballer, it’s very different at the South London derby. Thinking back to Saturday (and every previous recent encounter with Millwall) a high percentage of our songs will mock their stereotypical social-economic status (“we pay your benefits”…”does the social know you’re here”…”Jeremy Kyle’s coming for you”…”you’re the scum of South London” etc) whilst Millwall refer to us as “anoraks” and “train spotters” which I guess draws on the (extremely unfair) stereotypical perception of a Charlton fan being more geeky than their tough as nails neighbours in Bermondsey and the East End.
I started thinking, and I’d like to ask you the same question, do you think it would be fair to say the South London derby is one based on a class divide – either real or perceived ?
I’ve heard stories of people in the past going to Charlton at home one weekend, Millwall the other. I wonder if, other than cost, the reason that has changed is that football has become more tribal and every tribe needs a way of defining itself. For Arsenal it’s revelling in the success that they achieved a few years ago which now looks long gone, for Spurs it’s by slagging off a former player and claiming affiliation to a religion that I doubt many of them practice, for Millwall it’s by glorifying in a hard man image that’s largely a fiction of recent Hollywood films and for us it’s in taking the moral high ground.
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