‘Ginger Bob’ was a key member of the infamous Millwall Bushwackers hooligan firm and has opened up on his life of violence in a new podcast with James English
A former football hooligan, once part of the notorious Millwall Bushwackers, shared a close brush with death when he was a teenager. Known as ‘Ginger Bob’, he joined the Bushwackers at the age of 11 and encountered serious trouble a few years later.
While speaking on James English’s Anything Goes podcast, Bob recounted a particularly dangerous moment: “We played a match with Nottingham Forest, we took about 100 firm up there. We played them in the League Cup. A little kid came up and said ‘Bob, Bob they’re here.’
“There was 40 Romany Gypsy guys from Newark, Forest boys, all in their 30s and 40s and they all had weapons. So we’ve gone down there 25-handed and we’ve gone straight into them. This guy went to put an axe in my head. One of my friends, Italian Tony, blocked the guys arm.”
Ginger Bob started following Millwall with his father at a young age, but it wasn’t until his early teens that he engaged in his first true clash which occurred with a West Ham affiliate group, reports the Mirror.
While reflecting on the incident, he said: “West Ham’s Mile End firm was at Wapping. They broke into the station, they got all these iron bars.
“We was all packed on the train. Once we got out and we got on the platform with them it was like a massive fight and we got the better off them.
“It’s like a disease, the adrenaline rush. It’s very very hard to get out of.
“Millwall, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham is like the five families in New York, the Mafia. With Millwall, it was so secretive. Because of my near death experience I’ve got to get the stories out. We’re very tight.
The former football hooligan opened up about one particular element that kept Millwall’s firm members from running away during a scrap – a profound sense of fear.
Bob went on to say: “If anyone ran they would be ‘completely ostracised’ from the firm.
“We had more heavy guys than the other firms. We seemed to be outnumbered most of the time. If anyone ran, they would be completely ostracised from the firm. Even if you’re going to get killed, you have to stand and fight.
“If you run, you’re not just told, you’ll be physically dealt with. It’s like being in the Mafia and being a grass.”
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