FORMER Millwall manager Billy Bonds MBE has sadly passed away aged 79.
Bonds, who made 799 appearances for West Ham United as a player, was appointed Lions boss on May 1997 after four years as Hammers manager between 1990-94.
He oversaw 53 games in the 97-98 season as Millwall finished eighteenth in Division Two, before parting ways with the club at the end of the campaign.
Bonds signed the Lions’ all-time record goalscorer Neil Harris, as well as Tim Cahill, Robbie Ryan and Stuart Nethercott, all of whom were in the squad that would make the 2001-02 Division One play-offs, losing to Birmingham City in the semi-finals.