Farewell to lion-hearted hero Kitchener

At 1.50pm today, some of South London’s toughest customers will shed a quiet tear as applause drifts around the New Den for a fallen hero.

And many more of us who never saw Barry Kitchener play and mightn’t, in truth, recall ever seeing his face until the first tributes were posted, will join them in a thought and a prayer.

For Kitch will forever live on in the pages of Only A Game? — Eamon Dunphy’s marvellous old story of Millwall’s disappointing 1973-74 season; a tale of dashed dreams in the mud and sweat of English League Division 2.