Former Millwall Hooligan Reveals Five Hardest Firms He Faced

A former Millwall hooligan who became a successful actor named the five toughest firms he came up against in his fighting days.

Frank Harper is renowned for playing "hard man" roles in films like 'The Rise of the Footsoldier' and 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'.

But he is undoubtedly best known for playing Billy Bright, a member of the 'Chelsea Headhunters' firm in the classic 2004 hooligan film 'The Football Factory'.

Harper's character battles with rivals Millwall's main firm-heads throughout the film but the irony is that in real life he is a huge fan of the Lions and used to follow them all over the country.

But Harper didn't need to do much transforming to become the character as he was a former hooligan himself with Millwall in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

In the book called Terrace Legends, via Daily Star, Harper picked out his top five football firms and included Chelsea, who he pretended to support during his biggest acting gig.

"West Ham, Chelsea, Pompey (Portsmouth), Leeds and Cardiff City", he stated, failing to rank the firms.

Harper went on to recall a major incident involving Millwall and Leeds where his fans made a beeline for the Yorkshire outfit.

Frank Harper moved into acting after being involved in hooliganism. Image: Getty

He said: "Leeds at home in the league. I was in a pub and suddenly it emptied. The ones that couldn't get out the door were climbing out the toilet windows to get out on to the street.

"Thousands of Millwall came out of nowhere as bottles and glasses rained down on the Leeds lot. The Old Bill pulled a transit van across the pub doorway to try to stem the flow of Millwall fans. That day Leeds were dead lucky to reach the ground."

He named Grimsby as the worst ground he has been too, calling it a "s***hole" and claiming that "you can smell fish 20 miles outside the town".

Millwall hooligan's frightening ordeal

But he was involved in another scary experience at a Millwall home game, when a pocket of Ipswich fans infiltrated the stands and after plenty of pushing, he was close to smacking his head on a metal barrier.

"One of my most frightening experiences at football was when Millwall played Ipswich at the Den in the '70s," he remembered.

"Somehow a mob of Ipswich came into the Cold Blow Lane End of the ground.

"Everyone pushed down the terraces towards them, and I was being carried and shoved by one mass of angry bodies. My head was heading towards a metal barrier and I just ducked underneath it, but my mate hit his head and I had to drag him up because he was nearly out cold."