Brentford Millwall hand grenade: the Griffin Park goalmouth scare that was a dud (1965)
On Saturday 6 November 1965, Millwall won 2-1 at Griffin Park in Football League Division Three, and the result is the least of what the afternoon is remembered for. During the game a dead grenade shell turned up behind Brentford goalkeeper Chic Brodie’s goal, one of English football’s odder off-pitch scares. Brodie threw it into his net, where a policeman took charge of it. Police later identified the device as an inert American pineapple-type shell.
The match record is firm. The Brentford Millwall hand grenade is where the story turns careful: what happened, when, and whether it even belongs to this exact fixture all rest on different weights of evidence.
Key Facts
- Brentford 1 Millwall 2, Football League Division Three, Griffin Park, Saturday 6 November 1965.
- Tommy Higginson scored Brentford’s goal, driving the ball into the roof of the Millwall net after coming on as a substitute.
- An inert grenade shell was found behind Chic Brodie’s goal; police recorded it as an American pineapple-type device.
- The grenade is dated to this Brentford v Millwall match, on 6 November 1965, and turned out to be a fake.
- Millwall finished second in Division Three in 1965-66 and won promotion; Brentford came 23rd of the 24 clubs and dropped into Division Four.
- Chic Brodie signed for Brentford in November 1963 and made more than 200 appearances, and ranks as a contender for the most unlucky goalkeeper the game has produced.
- Brodie’s Football League career ended at Colchester in late November 1970 when a dog ran into his knee and shattered his kneecap.
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A Division Three Saturday that turned into a bomb-disposal call
On the pitch, 6 November 1965 went Millwall’s way: they won 2-1 and left Griffin Park with both points. The season only got worse for Brentford from there. They finished 23rd of the division’s 24 clubs and dropped into Division Four, while Millwall took second place and went up. Brentford’s goal came from Tommy Higginson, who had just come off the bench and hammered the ball into the roof of the Millwall net before the visitors saw the match out. The football has been forgotten. The grenade has not.
What the Brentford Millwall hand grenade actually was
The Brentford Millwall hand grenade was never live. A dead grenade shell came down behind Brodie’s goal at Griffin Park, and the keeper tossed it into his own net, where a Constable O’Connell took charge of it. The officer dropped it into a sand bucket and walked it round to the local police station, where it was identified as an inert American pineapple-pattern shell, and a Royal Army Ordnance Corps bomb disposal team removed it the following Wednesday. Whatever the crowd feared at the time, the device was harmless.
There is a wrinkle, and it comes from Brentford themselves. A contemporary club clarification noted that the object was only spotted in the net after the final whistle, and that “there is nothing to show that it had not been there at the start” of play, adding that the thing Brodie actually threw out was a can. The popular telling has the grenade lobbed from the away support mid-match; the club’s own note at the time is more guarded about the timing. Both versions agree on the essential point: nobody was in danger.
Why the exact-match link needs guarding
The replica grenade in Brodie’s Brentford years is well attested: in a match against Millwall he retrieved from his goalmouth a grenade that turned out to be a replica. Fixing that incident to this precise fixture, Brentford against Millwall on 6 November 1965, rests on club and fan histories rather than a national record of the day. Those histories give the date as 6 November 1965 against Millwall, and the Brentford supporter and programme accounts agree. The date-pin is consistent across them, even if it comes from those histories rather than a match report filed at the time.
Chic Brodie, and a career the record books filed under bad luck
Chic Brodie signed for Brentford in November 1963 and made more than 200 senior appearances for the club across the seasons 1963-64 to 1970-71. The grenade is the tale that travels, but it sits inside a run of misfortune that reads like invention. He has a fair claim to be the unluckiest goalkeeper ever to have lived: a stone thrown from a crowd that put him on a stretcher, the grenade, a Lincoln match in 1970 where he hurt his back when a crossbar he was clinging to came down, and finally the dog.
| Year | Incident | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Struck by a stone thrown from the crowd | Carried off injured |
| 1965 | Replica grenade found in his goalmouth at Griffin Park | Inert; police and RAOC removed it |
| 1970 | Held a crossbar against Lincoln that then collapsed | Back injury |
| 1970 | Collided with a dog on the pitch at Colchester | Shattered kneecap; career ended |
The dog that finished him
The end came at Colchester in a 4-0 defeat late in November 1970. A dog got onto the pitch and ran into Brodie’s knee, and the collision left him with a shattered kneecap; he gave up the fight to recover in 1971. His verdict on the animal was that “it just happened to be a solid one”. The moment was filmed and passed into folklore, which is why the venue and the outcome stay consistent across the retellings even where the date and the breed of dog do not: the ground was Colchester, the date is given as either 27 or 28 November 1970, and the animal is a terrier in one telling and a sheepdog in another.
READ MORE: More London derby history and the rivalries behind days like this →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Brentford Millwall Hand Grenade
What happened in the Brentford Millwall hand grenade incident on 6 November 1965?
During Brentford’s Division Three match against Millwall at Griffin Park on 6 November 1965, an inert grenade shell was found behind Brentford goalkeeper Chic Brodie’s goal. Brodie threw it into his own net, where a policeman took charge of it. It was taken to the local police station and logged as an inert American pineapple type, then removed by an army bomb disposal unit. The device was never a live weapon.
What was the score when Brentford played Millwall on 6 November 1965?
Millwall won 2-1 at Griffin Park in Football League Division Three, with Brentford the home side. Tommy Higginson scored Brentford’s goal. Millwall, chasing promotion, took the points.
Was the hand grenade thrown at Griffin Park in 1965 real?
No, the grenade was inert and posed no danger. Police logged it as an inert American pineapple type, and a Royal Army Ordnance Corps bomb disposal unit removed it days later. It has since been called a fake, a replica or a dummy.
Who was Chic Brodie, the goalkeeper in the Brentford Millwall hand grenade story?
Chic Brodie was a Scottish goalkeeper who signed for Brentford in November 1963 and made more than 200 senior appearances for the club across 1963-64 to 1970-71. He had earlier played for clubs including Manchester City, Aldershot, Wolves and Northampton. He is remembered less for his saves than for a sequence of freak misfortunes, enough to put him in the argument for the unluckiest goalkeeper the game has seen.
Did Chic Brodie really pick the grenade up during the Millwall match?
In the popular account, Brodie lifted the grenade off the turf and lobbed it into his own net, where a Constable O’Connell spotted it. The officer, not realising it was dead, set it in a sand bucket and carried it away to the station. There is a wrinkle: a separate Brentford club clarification says the object was only noticed in the net after full time and that “there is nothing to show that it had not been there at the start”. So the dramatic mid-match toss is the popular version rather than a settled fact.
Who scored for Brentford against Millwall on 6 November 1965?
Tommy Higginson scored Brentford’s only goal. He came off the bench and smashed the ball into the roof of the Millwall net, but Millwall won 2-1. Higginson was a long-serving Brentford player of the 1960s.
Why is the link between the hand grenade and this exact 1965 match treated cautiously?
The replica grenade is well attested as an event of Brodie’s Brentford years, but pinning it to the precise fixture rests on club and fan histories rather than a national newspaper match report from the day. Those histories record the grenade against Millwall and give the date as 6 November 1965. The account is consistent, even if the exact-match link comes from the histories rather than a hard contemporary record. The underlying event, an inert grenade in Brodie’s goalmouth, is not in doubt.
Which division were Brentford and Millwall playing in during 1965-66?
Both clubs were in Football League Division Three in the 1965-66 season. Millwall finished second and won promotion, while Brentford finished 23rd of the 24 clubs and went down to Division Four. Hull City won the division that year. The two London clubs were heading in opposite directions.
How did Chic Brodie’s football career actually end?
Brodie’s Football League career ended after a dog ran onto the pitch and collided with him at Colchester, in a 4-0 Brentford defeat late in November 1970. The collision shattered his kneecap, and he conceded the battle to recover in 1971. Accounts differ on the detail: the animal is a tiny white terrier in one telling and a sheepdog in another, and the date is given as either 27 or 28 November 1970. The incident was filmed and became part of football folklore.
Why is Chic Brodie called the unluckiest goalkeeper in football?
The label comes from the sheer run of freak incidents. Across a few seasons he was struck by a stone from a crowd, found a grenade in his goalmouth, hurt his back when a crossbar he was holding collapsed against Lincoln, and finally lost his career to a dog. None of these were his fault, which is rather the point. The grenade alone would make most keepers’ careers; Brodie had a full set.
Where was Griffin Park, the ground where the Brentford Millwall hand grenade was found?
Griffin Park was Brentford’s home ground in west London, and it staged this 1965 fixture against Millwall. The club played there for well over a century before relocating to a new stadium nearby. The ground was a tight, old-fashioned enclosure of the kind common in the lower divisions of the 1960s. The grenade was found behind one of its goals during the Division Three match.
What happened to Brentford and Millwall after the 1965-66 season?
Millwall’s second-place finish sent them up to Division Two for 1966-67, while Brentford’s 23rd place dropped them into Division Four. Brentford’s decline nearly cost them their Football League place in the years that followed. Both clubs later climbed back, and Brentford eventually returned to the top flight of English football. In 1965, though, the day belonged to Millwall on the pitch and to a dead grenade off it.
The Brentford Millwall hand grenade, kept in proportion
Strip away the retellings and what survives is a Division Three defeat, an inert shell that a policeman carried off in a bucket of sand, and a goalkeeper whose luck ran to grenades and stray dogs. For more days when football served up something nobody could have scripted, the rest of our On This Day archive is the place to keep reading.
Sources: RSSSF, Old Football Programmes, Beesotted, Wolves Heroes, Margate Football Club History, Griffin Park Grapevine.
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