Soccer: Love that fighting talk

Paul Ifill celebrates his first goal for the Phoenix. Photo / Getty Images

There's a favourite chant among Millwall fans that goes: "Nobody likes us, we don't care."

It goes further. They enjoy the fact everyone despises them.

They are mostly from the tough streets of Bermondsey in sarf London, as they say in their caustic south London accent, and have a reputation for violence and intimidation.

Fans went on a rampage around The Den after their side lost 1-0 to Birmingham in the first leg of a playoff semifinal. It was a night which brought more shame to an unpopular club and injuries to 47 policemen and 24 police horses.

Against this backdrop, Paul Ifill made his name in football.

The new Wellington Phoenix striker signed with Millwall as a 17-year-old and played 234 games for them over eight years.

There were highlights, like promotion in 2001 to Division One (now the Championship) and the 2004 FA Cup final against Manchester United. But Ifill also saw first-hand what damage Millwall supporters could do.

"I was there that night [of the riots after the Birmingham game] and saw what was going on," he says. "You don't want to be associated with that. My mum came to the game and didn't get away from the ground until 2am. I got back to her car and the cars either side of hers had been burnt out and turned over. You don't need that.

"But there's a fine line between being intimidating and causing trouble. Because of their reputation, I think people thought they needed to go one step too far to enforce that reputation. That's not needed. I think it's a scary enough place to come to anyway."

It was often only the bravest, or stupidest, away fans who ventured to the Den. Even on away trips, Millwall fans came in for special treatment, with police cordons waiting to escort them to the ground as soon as they stepped off the train.

For all of that, though, Ifill said his time at the Lions was the best of his career and he enjoyed the fact Millwall fans were intimidating.

"I liked it. It's like a siege mentality. It was us against the world. A lot of teams found it hard to come to our place and you have to use it to your advantage. It seems a little like that here at Wellington. Talking to the Perth players last weekend, even during the game, they didn't want to be here. They didn't like the weather, or the fact they travelled so far.

"You have to use it to your advantage. We did at Millwall and I think we will here."

Wellington fans can be a little shocking, usually when they get their shirts off and start exposing their fine, ahem, figures but Westpac Stadium is literally a world away from where Ifill has come.

It was part of the attraction for the 29-year-old. He had recently been released by Championship side Crystal Palace and didn't know what his future held.

The prospect of playing 55 games a season, sometimes two a week, was exhausting. The prospect of playing 27 games, one a week, was more enticing, especially with a body that needs constant maintenance.

Ifill "put the feelers out" and Wellington were the first to table a concrete offer. He did his homework on the club and A-League but two months passed before he signed and the final say came down to whether his girlfriend would follow him.

"I don't think we would be here if she said no," he says. "I don't know what I would have done."

Ifill's girlfriend has a following of her own. Last year, Elle Isaac featured as The Spoiler's WAG of the day, with the sports gossip website describing her as "Crystal Palace's greatest contribution to Waggery".

Ifill showed glimpses of his class in Wellington's 2-1 win over Perth last weekend. He has a good touch and a nice turn of pace and chimed in with a well-taken goal. He might have had a double had he not been denied by a brilliant save.

It is still early in his A-League career and plenty have failed to deliver on promise but what is encouraging is that Ifill says he's operating at only 65 per cent match fitness. He played only 70 minutes of football in the four months before his arrival in Wellington three weeks ago.

"There's plenty more to come," Ifill promises. "I thought I did okay last weekend but I know I can do a lot better. I have bonded with the lads off the pitch but on it, they don't know what sort of runs I make and vice versa. That will come."

Ifill has attracted 33 per cent of the vote on who will be the best new A-League import in a poll on an Australian football website.

Australian bookies have also adjusted their season odds, with the Phoenix now no longer favourites for the wooden spoon. They have a difficult month ahead of them however, starting with today's visit to Brisbane.

"I didn't mind that at all [that the club was initially wooden spoon favourites]," Ifill says. "We can slip in under the radar."

It's fighting talk, the stuff he's used to back in Bermondsey.