FOOTBALL EXCLUSIVE HOOLIGRANS!
They look sweet and innocent but Hilda, Edna & Betty are Millwall’s HARDEST thugs
SIPPING a cup of tea from a floral cup and thumbing a copy of The People’s Friend mag, Edna Foster looks like any other little old lady.
But widow Edna, 78, along with her companions, Hilda Grice, 82, and 75- year- old Betty Francis, differ from most elderly matrons in one dramatic way.
They are hardened, savage FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS!
And they’ve chosen Sunday Sport to talk for the first time about their life as Britain’s unlikeliest soccer thugs.
Edna contacted us after witnessing last week’s trouble between Millwall and Everton fans at Millwall’s Den ground.
Furious that a spokesman from the Metropolitan Police had described it as “some of the most shocking football violence seen for some time”, Edna used strongly un- PC language to denounce the mass brawl, which left one fan with a savage knife wound across his face.
Wiping the crumbs of a buttered crumpet from her mouth, Edna hissed in a low voice: “I’ve seen a better ruck between pooves in a boutique.”
Warming to her theme, the great- grandmother added: “F** king pooves, supporters these days.
“Back in the good old days, they would have been eaten for breakfast.”
Hilda Grice added: “Time was, a barney never even made news unless someone lost an eye or a limb. Now it’s headlines if someone gets a little scratch. What do they call them these days? Snowflakes, that’s it. F** king snowflakes.”
Mention of snow set the ladies off in a discussion about the recent inclement weather, which they blamed on “all them space rockets”, but eventually they returned to their chosen topic.
Betty Francis explained in graphic and horrifying detail how she and her pals have caused unseen mayhem over the years.
She giggled: “Nobody ever suspects three little old ladies. Many a time we’ve been right in the middle of the action, putting the f** king boot in – and the filth have pulled us ‘ to safety’.
“They think we’ve been caught up in it and are just ‘ innocent bystanders’ and they lead us away.”
The three live just a stone’s throw from the Old Den, home of Millwall Football Club until 1993 when the side moved to their new HQ in Bermondsey.
Their late husbands were all Lions fans and founder members of the hooligan firms that made Millwall supporters RUCK: Millwall and Everton fans clash feared across the country from the 1970s onwards.
Ironically, they’ve NEVER been to a game and their devotion to their club begins and ends with the opportunity it lends them for violence.
Edna said: “My Bert used to come home from a game, covered in blood and panting with excitement and I’d think ‘ Coo – I’d like a bit of that’.
“But if he’d had ever caught me running with the firm he would have leathered me. ‘ Not women’s work’ he’d have said.
“Things were a bit different then.”
But when their husbands gave up the hooliganism game due to, variously, death, imprisonment and infirmity, the wives came into their own.
Hilda said: “We just went for a look, really. I forget who we were playing, some northern monkeys, I reckon.
“And we just got swept up in it. Before you know it, I was jabbing my knitting needles in some ponce’s bollocks and he was squealing like a stuck pig.”
Betty added: “That was a good ruck, that one. I had some setting lotion in my handbag and I squirted it in some f** ker’s eyes. Lor lummee! If he wasn’t blinded for life!”
Edna said: “An old teapot in a shopping bag, that’s a good one. Crack them over the head and they bleed and bleed and bleed. Sharp stuff, broken china is.”
With the passage of time and improvements in police tactics, Edna, Betty and Hilda say that their days as football hooligans may be drawing to a close.
Betty explained: “The filth have eyes everywhere, what with this CCTV and all. It’s only a matter of time before one of us gets lifted.
“And prison’s no place for a lady of my years. Not with all them filthy lezzas.” “Lezzas, yes” agreed Edna. Hilda said: “We may have TRIO OF TERROR: The ladies tell all to and ( Betty in her casuals gear just one last outing before the end of the season. Something special. I’ll take my best kitchen knife, I reckon.”
News that three of Millwall’s hardest casuals are, in fact, retired greatgrandmothers will rattle cops.
Last week they were praised by top brass for preventing the Millwall- Everton battle from spiralling out of control.
Deputy Asst Commissioner Matt Twist said: “Their determination in restoring order was outstanding despite furniture, bottles and glass being launched at them as they attempted to disperse the crowd.”
Mr Twist said video footage is being analysed by officers in an attempt to identify dozens of people involved in the violence.
He explained: “We will use this evidence and all of the tools within our power to locate the individuals involved in this ridiculous behaviour, whether they come from London, Liverpool or elsewhere.
“We will bring them to justice.”
Three little old ladies from New Cross hope that they won’t be the ones in the dock.