Billy Whitehurst for me, absolute beast of a player. Tommy Smith and Stuart Pearce could look after themselves as well.
Tommy Smith and Stuart Pearce defo never played at The Valley
Happy to be proved wrong
Did he play against us in 94 season ?
I clearly remember him hitting the bar of the North goal at The Valley with a free kick, it was still wobbling a minute later. Would have been around 1993-4.
Playing for who ?
We were Div 2 then - Pearce was surely still Div 1 then (in old money)
Unless my memory is becoming very bad, I can’t recall Pearce at The Valley
Can’t be arsed to look at ‘Home and Away’ tonight - have had too much Rioja 😉
Will look tmrw - maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right 🤷
Stuart Pearce playing at the Valley for Forest April 1994
Did Gary Lineker ever play at the Valley? If so: him.
He might not be most people's first choice as hardest footballer. But you have to look at the evidence. He played over 400 top-flight games in England and Spain, across the seventies, eighties and nineties, an era when defenders would be classed by how hard and how often they kicked you. And got no protection from referees. Yet he never got booked throughout his career.
If you're going to pick a hard XI, he's the captain.
Julian Dicks was a horrible, dirty bastard. I thoroughly enjoyed watching John Robinson ripping him to shreds at the valley shortly before he hung up his boots.
I can't recall seeing a keeper on here so might I take this opportunity to offer Jussi Jaaskelainen as a candidate. Sent off four times in his career, all with straight reds - one of which was for slapping Roger Johnson of all people!
I can't recall seeing a keeper on here so might I take this opportunity to offer Jussi Jaaskelainen as a candidate. Sent off four times in his career, all with straight reds - one of which was for slapping Roger Johnson of all people!
Julian Dicks was a horrible, dirty bastard. I thoroughly enjoyed watching John Robinson ripping him to shreds at the valley shortly before he hung up his boots.
I seem to recall it was Danny Mills that went flying past him again and again..?
Did Gary Lineker ever play at the Valley? If so: him.
He might not be most people's first choice as hardest footballer. But you have to look at the evidence. He played over 400 top-flight games in England and Spain, across the seventies, eighties and nineties, an era when defenders would be classed by how hard and how often they kicked you. And got no protection from referees. Yet he never got booked throughout his career.
If you're going to pick a hard XI, he's the captain.
Julian Dicks was a horrible, dirty bastard. I thoroughly enjoyed watching John Robinson ripping him to shreds at the valley shortly before he hung up his boots.
I seem to recall it was Danny Mills that went flying past him again and again..?
Maybe that's my memory playing tricks with me. I do remember we put 4 past them that night and our performance was right up there with the best I've ever seen.
Julian Dicks was a horrible, dirty bastard. I thoroughly enjoyed watching John Robinson ripping him to shreds at the valley shortly before he hung up his boots.
I seem to recall it was Danny Mills that went flying past him again and again..?
Maybe that's my memory playing tricks with me. I do remember we put 4 past them that night and our performance was right up there with the best I've ever seen.
It was definitely Mills - He just kept knocking the ball past him and sprinting round him - made Dicks look like a donkey. If it were Robbo, he's have turned around for another go.
Julian Dicks was a horrible, dirty bastard. I thoroughly enjoyed watching John Robinson ripping him to shreds at the valley shortly before he hung up his boots.
I seem to recall it was Danny Mills that went flying past him again and again..?
Maybe that's my memory playing tricks with me. I do remember we put 4 past them that night and our performance was right up there with the best I've ever seen.
It was definitely Mills - He just kept knocking the ball past him and sprinting round him - made Dicks look like a donkey. If it were Robbo, he's have turned around for another go.
I missed this game as was on a weekend away in Blackpool with work colleagues.
I was thinking about Thatcher and I’m not sure…… I think there was a nasty streak to his game when I watched him play (leaving elbows in etc). Not as bad as Muscat - but it’s the same reason I wouldn’t call Muscat hard. There is a difference between being ‘hard’ and a nasty cnut.
Thatcher wasn’t hard just a nasty bitch of s player - Martin keown was up there - I remember when he put a reducer on Graham Stuart one game and it echoed round the ground - sounded like he’d broken him in half - he got up eventually and carried on tbf but was definitely reduced for the rest of the game
I was thinking about Thatcher and I’m not sure…… I think there was a nasty streak to his game when I watched him play (leaving elbows in etc). Not as bad as Muscat - but it’s the same reason I wouldn’t call Muscat hard. There is a difference between being ‘hard’ and a nasty cnut.
Despite playing for us Muscat is not really held in high regard at Millwall for this very reason. Hurlock meanwhile…
In terms of wearing our shirt I am surprised nobody has mentioned Harry Cripps. He was of course a Millwall legend but also served us very well. I remember watching him captain a youthful team in a reserve fixture where his physical and oral contribution literally intimidated every other individual on the pitch ….including the match officials.
Ron Harris playing for Brentford (I think he eas their coach and had been registered to play in emergencies) at the Valley when he looked about 40. Eas down at the front of the Covered End and when he smiled half his teeth were missing. Martin Robinson could have skinned him but Harris psyched him out on reputation alone.
That would have been the Milk Cup game Sept 1983 in the pouring rain. Francis Joseph scored very early on to put them 4-0 up on aggregate and it ended as a 4-2 loss. Chopper was 39 and later in that Milk Cup run I saw him play against Liverpool and.....he sold me the ticket for that game earlier on that day! He was looking after the ticket office while the office lady was at lunch!
People mentioning Van den hauwe or Dennis or Thatcher or any others of that ilk are wide of the mark. Just because you're a nasty shithouse doesn't mean you're a hard one. Costa for me epitomises the hard man - tough as old boots, take it as well as dish it out. The one exception to the above is Ferguson. He was a dirty bastard but hard as well.
People mentioning Van den hauwe or Dennis or Thatcher or any others of that ilk are wide of the mark. Just because you're a nasty shithouse doesn't mean you're a hard one. Costa for me epitomises the hard man - tough as old boots, take it as well as dish it out. The one exception to the above is Ferguson. He was a dirty bastard but hard as well.
Steve Thompson and Steve Brown are a couple I’d put in the fearless category - maybe not quarried like a Tommy Smith but out their bodies on the line - Jason Pierce similar
I was thinking about Thatcher and I’m not sure…… I think there was a nasty streak to his game when I watched him play (leaving elbows in etc). Not as bad as Muscat - but it’s the same reason I wouldn’t call Muscat hard. There is a difference between being ‘hard’ and a nasty cnut.
Despite playing for us Muscat is not really held in high regard at Millwall for this very reason. Hurlock meanwhile…
Yep. Ultimately he proved to be a coward. I was at the first Wolves home game after he had ended Matty Holmes career. We went for him from the start and he couldn’t handle it. Hardly put in a tackle all game. Eventually Robbo nutmegged him. That got a cheer at least as big as for our two goals. Didn’t help Matty Holmes but what did help was Peter Varney pursuing and winning a legal claim against the ****. That was back in the day when everything about the club and its tribe seemed just right…
Kevin Davies hard and dirty. Hermann had enough of his flying elbows and broke Davis’s cheekbone and got sent off. Davies did not go down and just shook his head. He did show his sporting side by getting himself sent off and levelling things up.
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https://youtu.be/KlMa0YGGsTA?si=G46kSDg7fflfIqmX
He might not be most people's first choice as hardest footballer. But you have to look at the evidence. He played over 400 top-flight games in England and Spain, across the seventies, eighties and nineties, an era when defenders would be classed by how hard and how often they kicked you. And got no protection from referees. Yet he never got booked throughout his career.
If you're going to pick a hard XI, he's the captain.
They were by no means "hardmen" but the way Parker and Poyet used to get stuck into crunching tackles could lift the crowd in a game hugely.
He did show his sporting side by getting himself sent off and levelling things up.