‘Fitting tribute to a true Lion’ – Millwall unveil ‘Paul Jiggins Media Suite’ in memory of fan and SunSport legend Jiggo

YOU don’t tend to support a club like Millwall for the glory.

The Sun’s much-loved and much- lamented football writer Paul Jiggins — a Millwall supporter, man and boy, thick and thin, proud and most definitely loud — certainly didn’t.

When you follow a club outside of the elite, you are often driven by an ability to rejoice in the ordinary or laugh at the downright awful.

You are also driven by a sense of belonging, of community, of being part of a footballing ‘family’, however dysfunctional.

So Jiggo, who died last month at the age of 50, would have been touched and amused when his beloved club renamed their press facilities as the ‘Paul Jiggins Media Suite’ before last night’s Championship defeat by Swansea.

It was accompanied by pictures as well as The Sun’s framed tribute spread to Jiggins.

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And Millwall tweeted: “A fitting tribute to a true Lion.”

Paul’s widow Kelly — along with their daughter Millie — watched Lions chairman John Berylson and chief executive Steve Kavanagh unveil that tribute.

Kelly claimed her husband would probably have asked ‘Where his bleeding statue was?’.

Those of us who spent hours of their life sitting next to Jiggins in press boxes will concur.

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He never stopped talking. Never stopped quipping. Never stopped punning. Never stopped suggesting intros.

The devilish mind beneath that ginger bonce of his seemed to whirr at a million miles per hour.

And often, when you’d given up telling him to stop bending your ear, you’d recognise moments of true genius.

Jiggo was proud to work for The Sun, where he had risen from a messenger to become one of our leading writers.

The ‘No One Likes Us We Don’t Care’ ethos burned within him.

Millwall, like your dear old Currant Bun, is not always universally popular — but Jiggo had a fierce affiliation to both. He had many dear friends within both institutions and he cherished them.

He first watched Millwall with his late father Ronnie at the old Den, that infamous but atmospheric old wreck down Cold Blow Lane.

He’d walk those surrounding Jack-the-Ripper alleyways, through police horse s**t to the crumbling terraces, the barbed wire and the stuff of his childhood dreams.

Jiggo saw his club briefly lead the top flight in 1988, contest the FA Cup final in 2004 and venture into Europe for one fixture.

But following Millwall is not really about those glimpses of starlight. It’s more about the away-days, the beers, the scrapes and the mates made.

Before kick-off last night, they held a minute’s applause for Jiggo and on The Den’s big screen there was an image of the man himself, in his Herbert flat-cap, celebrating a late Millwall equaliser in the away end at Bramall Lane.

He was one of them and, as probably the highest-profile ­Millwall-supporting sports writer, there were plenty of sewage storms for Jiggo to help his club navigate.

Jiggo was a proper journalist, never a cheerleader, yet he was a genuine friend to Millwall when they needed one — which was often.

He was a regular on the club’s Wall Talk podcast, where he’d interviewed former Lions player-manager Mick McCarthy days before he died.

Millwall had been on an eight-game unbeaten run, propelling themselves into the play-off picture but have now failed to win in three.

Joel Piroe netted with a low drive at the start of the second half.

The locals made plenty of din as Millwall strived for an equaliser — George Saville, Danny McNamara, Jed Wallace and Benik Afobe all going close.

In the press box, though, it was much quieter than usual. And we wished it wasn’t so.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk