Football Days

The Den - Millwall FC

Millwall 2-1 Aston Villa

25/01/13 - FA Cup 4th Round

Att: 15,007

I was due to work the Saturday of 4th round weekend, so I was hoping that Villa would get a pretty mundane draw so that I wouldn't miss much. However, a trip to Millwall came out of the hat and as it's only 30 miles or so from where I live I was praying that it would be moved but it was unlikely as Villa were due to play Newcastle on the Tuesday night. Thankfully the good people in the coalition government have decided that Lewisham doesn't need a hospital so there was a protest planned in the local area on Saturday 26th, meaning that the police moved the game to the Friday night, meaning that I could now attend. I love it when a plan comes together.

Tickets were reasonably priced at £20 and the train was only £11 return from Farnborough, which involved changes at Clapham Junction and Peckham Rye before arriving at South Bermondsey. I had arrived quite early, so I had a look around the stadium and the local area to take some pictures and kill some time before the Villa coaches arrived at the ground. As you'd expect, it's quite a rough area and not the most welcoming of places. Thankfully I don't wear colours and I don't speak with a Midlands accent, so it was quite easy for me to mingle with the locals undetected.

Millwall were formed in 1885 and have spent the majority of their time bouncing between the second and third tiers of English football. They did have a two year spell in the top flight, where they achieved their highest ever finish of 10th and in 2004 they reached the FA Cup final, where they were defeated by Manchester United in Cardiff. Despite losing the final The Lions qualified for the UEFA Cup where they were beaten 4-2 on aggregate by Hungarian champions Ferencvaros at the first hurdle. The season after their European adventure the club were relgated to League One, but four years later they beat Swindon 1-0 at Wembley to secure a return to the second tier.

The club moved to The New Den (as it was known) in 1993 and it was the first newly built stadium in London since the war and the first all seated stadium built since the Taylor Report. It has clearly been designed to combat Millwall's problem with hooliganism, with the away fans given a direct walkway to and from the station and with four separate stands keeping fans apart to prevent trouble inside the stadium. It was built four years after The Lions had been relegated from the top flight and has a capacity of 20,000 - However, average crowds have generally been around half of that. One thing that I notice is that this is probably the only case in which supporters of other clubs prefer visiting a club's new stadium. Plenty of people wish Arsenal still played at Highbury, Derby still played at the Baseball Ground and Coventry still played at Highfield Road, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone wish that Millwall still played at the old Den!

While the inside of the stadium is pretty dull, featuring four identical stands, the outside gives the ground some character with plenty of fencing, barbed wire and security cameras giving the place a bit of an edge. Millwall's problems with hooliganism are well documented both in Britain and abroad, but having visited The Den in 2008 for an FA Cup tie against Aldershot, I have to say that I found it to be one of the safest grounds I've ever visited due to the way it's built and the organisation from the police.

After stopping at a cafe near South Bermondsey station for some dinner I made my way back to the ground and went into the away end where I met a few mates for a couple of pre-match beers. Due to a lack of away fan-friendly pubs in the area and the evening kick off forcing more Villa fans than usual to use supporters' coaches, the concourse was the only place to get a drink and as a result it was packed. Things weren't helped by having only one person serving at the till, which resulted in a pretty hectic queue.

On the pitch Millwall have had a steady season so far and find themselves just outside the play offs. They reached the 4th round of the cup by beating League One side Preston 1-0 at The Den, but had managed only one win in their last six league matches - At home to bottom side Bristol City - before this match and were beaten 2-0 at home by Burnley last time out.

Despite this the bookmakers made the Championship side favourites for the match against an Aston Villa side that had been humiliated by League Two Bradford City in the League Cup a few days earlier. With a relegation six pointer against Newcastle on the horizon, it was vitally important that Villa got a good result here to build some momentum ahead of the game. Although the travelling Villa fans weren't holding out much hope.

We made our way into the ground just before kick off and most areas of the stadium were full and there was a really good atmosphere building. The teams emerged from the tunnel with Millwall in blue and Aston Villa wearing their luminous away kit, with Millwall's anthem "Let 'Em Come" ringing out from the PA system.

It was quite an even start to the match without a great deal of quality on show from either side. After twenty minutes Delph went in with a strong challenge in the middle of the park and released Weimann who saw his shot saved by the keeper, but it came straight to Darren Bent whose mis-hit evaded everyone and rolled into the net to give Aston Villa the lead. Moments later Millwall won a corner and sent it to the back post where Danny Shittu was unmarked. He headed the ball over the bar. A few minutes later Millwall got another corner on the same side. It went in the same place. To the same player. This time he scored. 1-1. After that Villa fell to pieces and Millwall were in the ascendancy, although the scores were level at the break.

In the second half Villa grew back into the game, enjoying a lot of the ball but without any real threat or end product. Danny Shittu was dealing with everything quite comfortably and nullified Villa's attacking threat in the final third. Barry Bannan went closest for the visitors with a long range effort that tested the Millwall keeper, but with stoppage time approaching the match was decided when John Marquis headed home from close range to give the Championship side a deserved victory.

It was a bad end to a terrible week for Aston Villa and it makes you wonder where it's all going to end. If it doesn't end with relegation I'll be very surprised. It was a great result for Millwall though and a draw away to non-league Luton Town in the next round gives them a fantastic opportunity of reaching the last eight.

One thing that has to be said is that the atmosphere inside The Den was the best I've seen from an English home crowd for many years. They were noisy, passionate, had a good range of songs and created a very intimidating atmosphere for the away side. There was an incident in the second half where bottles were thrown at the linesman, which is a shame because I would have liked to be able to say there was no trouble at the ground. Maybe it wasn't quite so raucous when 9,000 were in attendance for a league match against Burnley, but on this night the atmosphere was top class.

After the match we were held outside the away end for a good half an hour while the home fans cleared. It's a right pain and it makes you wonder why they don't let the away fans clear first, but then again the away fans only turn up once a year so I suppose they're much more worried about looking after their regulars. We eventually got back to the station and it wasn't until 22:45 that my train left South Bermondsey and I got back to Farnborough at around half past midnight.

On the whole it was a decent trip. Millwall away is a match that some people seem very wary of attending and although their reputation is deserved, the police have it so well organised that away fans are looked after better than anywhere else in the country. Personally I prefer an away day where I can drink near the ground and get away straight after the full time whistle, so it certainly doesn't rank as one of my favourite places to visit, but some people act like they're visiting a war-torn area of the Middle East when faced with a trip to this part of South London. It really isn't that bad.