This week’s legend is a player who grew up watching the likes of Stanley Matthews and Sir Tom Finney. Joe Broadfoot played almost 300 games for the Lions during the 1960s and was part of a famous side that broke the record for home league games unbeaten.

Was you a fan of Sir Tom Finney then?
He was like me, I used to score goals, I got nearly one hundred league goals but he was some player. I saw a video of myself on television the other night and I got a great goal with my left foot, I was two-footed but he was the dogs.

How did your career start at Millwall?
I started in the Youth Team in 1957, I signed pro around about the time of the Munich disaster in February 1958 and I played for them for five years, got promotion when we won the Fourth Division Championship in 61/62 and I got 17 goals in the first year in the Third Division and I got them goals from the wing which Finney would have been proud of. It was pretty tough, it was a level playing field, you didn’t have all the Russian billionaires buying up all the best players, obviously the top teams had the best but there were a lot more shocks in the FA Cup.

The following season there was an exodus of players, a bit like this year, we got rid of all our senior pros and brought in a lot of new faces. There was only Alex Stepney who ever got anywhere and we were bottom of the league, similar to this year, and I thought I wanted to play in the First Division, asked for a transfer and they sold me to Ipswich.

I went to Northampton after that but we got relegated so I went back to Millwall, the manager at the time didn’t want to play me on the wing, he said we had just won the World Cup without wingers, so I had to run about in midfield and I was shattered all the time and I couldn’t sprint which I was good at.

We went 58 or 59 home league games undefeated which was the record at the time, we took the record off Liverpool and they have got the record back now funnily enough. I fell out with Mr Fenton the manager and I went back to Ipswich to finish my career.

My career ended prematurely because I had an operation and the surgeon said that I had knees like a man of 90.

Were you a Millwall fan? You were born quite local.
I was born in Lewisham, it was local boy makes good and I never really wanted to leave. I was a London cabbie and I was happy at Millwall but we were going back down to the Fourth Division and when you have played over 200 games for a club you want to go up, not down.

Who were your heroes as a boy?
My heroes were Sir Tom Finney, Stanley Matthews, I was a winger. I used to spend all my time playing football and I used to love the continentals and when I was about 14 Hungary beat England at Wembley, and they were the people we used to idolise as kids.

What do you remember of your debut?
My debut was against Carlisle and the first thing I remember is that they never turned up! I’m sitting there waiting to make my debut, the dream of all kids, I’m eighteen years old, I’m all nervous and I haven’t slept for two days, but there’s no Carlisle, they got stuck in traffic. So I’m sitting there at 3 O’clock and they came and told us that they weren’t there and I thought that it was a bad dream. They eventually turned up and I crossed one and somebody whacked it in the net and the crowd and the noise, I went dizzy with excitement, I got the adrenalin and I couldn’t stop running after that. It was a wonderful debut for me.

What’s your main memory of your time at The Den?
My fondest memory would have been when we beat the record for number of home games unbeaten, the crowd swarmed on the pitch and we were drinking champagne afterwards, it didn’t last long because we lost the following week. Winning the Fourth Division was good but to go 59 games without losing in any kind of football is good, Millwall did that and it was a record for a while.  That would probably be my favourite memory, I was 27, we had just won the World Cup and when you get older you savour those memories.

You finally got to meet one of your heroes when you took a visit to Deepdale a few seasons back.
It was the last game of the season a few years ago when Preston had won the Second Division and while I was waiting in the reception in comes Tom Finney and I just had to get up to shake the great man’s hand. I had never actually seen him play in the flesh but his record was phenomenal and as I winger myself he was the ultimate legend.

You do a bit of media work for Millwall so you’ll know all about Danny Dichio?
I thought he was underated by the Millwall faithful, what people don’t realise is how good he is in defence. We never conceded goals from corners or free-kicks when he was there and when we got to the Cup Final he didn’t play in the next game against Coventry and we were 2-0 down at half-time from two corner kicks and we never recovered from that and missed out on the Play-Offs.


Millwall’s Last Three League Visits To Deepdale
13th November 2004
PNE 1-1 Millwall
Danny Dichio comes off the bench for the Lions and inspires Millwall to scrap for a point after Eddie Lewis had put PNE one up.

21st February 2004
PNE 1-2 Millwall
A rare Claude Davis goal is not enough to rescue a point for North End as Paul Ifill and Tim Cahill get the goals for Dennis Wise’s side.

8th February 2003
PNE 2-1 Millwall
First-half goals from Eddie Lewis and Lee Cartwright do the job and despite a late effort from Christophe Kinet, Craig Brown’s side take all three points.