Piccolo

True. A better example would be the 1,340 Bristol City brought on a Saturday afternoon in February 2020 whilst 7th in the Championship.

I would argue our home attendances are very healthy. Six matches have already been a sell-out for home fans this season, despite us until last few games really struggling. Furthermore, you have to take in account Millwall play a tube ride away from West Ham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Fulham. A bus ride from Crystal Palace and a good walk from Charlton. I would say that if you took the populations of all the areas considered ‘Millwall areas’, such as Bermondsey, New Cross etc, you are looking at c.200,000 people. Therefore average home support of 12-15,000 home fans is very good percentage wise, especially when you consider our complete lack of success and the transient nature of an inner London population too. For example, if the people of Leeds supported their one club in the same % of the population, they’d be getting c60,000 to games, even when they were in League One (they in fact dropped down to 16-18,000 at one point). Again, it is all about how you look at these things. How many do you think Bristol City would average if you played out their league history playing a few tube stops away from Arsenal, West Ham & Chelsea?

Around 16/17th I believe. We try to get in the right characters.

Mate, I didn’t. I concisely used facts to counter your opinion is all. But I often find people get all defensive and prickly when that happens these days.

To be fair to us (Millwall), we have been a top half Championship side in all but one of the last six seasons, and top nine in four of those. And I can see us finishing top 12 again this season too.

That is a bit unfair, as I think we executed our plan perfectly. Edwards has got us playing counter attack football and that is what we did today.

Okay. I was just pointing out that I was right is all.

Bristol City brought 1,122 to The Den last season for a fixture just before Christmas and that obviously included London & SE based fans. So I don’t think I am talking non sense when I suggest that you’d take a similar percentage of home fans (from Bristol) to us for a New Years Day match costing £35

Good. But £100 plus quid to watch us at a very familiar ground still isn’t gonna entice more than the hardcore on New Years Day, after Christmas and at the height of a cost of living crisis. As said, nearly 8% of STHs bothering is still pretty respectable imo. Would more than 1,100 Bristolians bother coming to The Den direct from Bristol today (ie not London/SE based), whilst near bottom of table?

Yeah, I didn’t say no women and children watch us away, just that it will be a lower % than any other club due to the crap we have to put up with from locals and local police forces. Also my cousin sent me this… so who knows… not sure why he’d lie?!

Yep. As said, over £100 for an adult to simply come by train (if lucky) and watch us today. That’s without eating or drinking anything. I love Bristol, great city, my sister lives there too, but I’ll be saving the money thanks!

It goes up and down, depending on who we are playing. I have been at 16,500 ‘sell-outs’ v West Ham. It was interesting to compare away followings that went to Millwall and Charlton when in same division. The two are 4 miles apart, with The Den actually easier to get to, but the same club took double the fans to the Valley nearly in every example.

To be fair, all but two home games at The Den have sold out for home fans this season. We can only hold 15,500 home fans due to poor design of The Den. If clubs travelled to us in the numbers they do to other London clubs we’d be averaging 19,000 odd (or whatever the Met now let us); 20,000 if we were allowed all seats to be used, which we aren’t.

Depends how you look at it. Compared to big, regional clubs like Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich City, no we don’t. But as a ratio of home support, our numbers are pretty decent in fact. They usually range between 8-12% of the home support (ie average home average minus away followings). That would be like Hull City averaging around 2,500 on the road, which they don’t. Also, you need to remember that many ‘normal’ Millwall fans will not travel to certain places, certainly not with family members. If you look at our away followings closely, you will see that we have less women and children than any other club as a percentage of the following. This is because no matter where we go, every local nutter will come out of the woodwork to prove themselves. This means our away followings tend to be 18-50 year old male heavy and this creates a self fulfilling prophecy sometimes, as they will encounter said local nutters. Furthermore, Millwall’s away games have all been members only and all-ticket since the Play-Off riot in 2002. This stops people just deciding the night before or that morning. In fact my sister now lives in Bristol and messaged to say about going today, but she’d have to go in the home end with her Welsh husband. However, the low number is just as much down to it being New Year’s Day and at a ground we’ve been to plenty of times to, but proving to be a bugger to get to in current times. Plus, with Christmas bills about to come in to, £100+ to watch us at Bristol City & miss a day with family is one for the die hards. We have c8,000 season ticket holders, so 619 (plus my sister in home end) represents 7.7% of STHs. I am estimating (your website says you have 14,000 STHs) that would be like Bristol City taking 1,078 to The Den today direct from Bristol, ie not including London/southern based fans. Now, considering Bristol City brought 1,686 on the opening day in lovely August sunshine with optimism high, including London/SE based fans and are currently averaging around that too, 1,078 of you coming to The Den today would be below average, but still pretty decent. Getting back to the first point, Millwall are currently averaging a higher ratio of home fans on the road than Bristol City, despite all the barriers to our away support I have highlighted (as well as terrible season so far). So again, it depends how you look at these things… are Millwall are well supported club? No. But the fact that 12-15,000 people still bother to come support us despite us being crap for all but two seasons of our history, whilst playing a tube ride away from Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham, and a bus ride from Charlton and Palace, and a decent percentage of those put up with all sorts of crap from other fans and police forces, perhaps suggests we are at least a passionate bunch! You not seen… already cancellations!!

Rowett left. Under Edwards we are more positive. However, he has also recognised the need to not to go gung-ho. His first game saw us win 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday, but then some reality checks against the likes of Leicester and Ipswich, plus late goals conceded meant we have tightened up again. However, the football is far more attacking than under GR, with some good combinations developing. Bristol City are in great form though, and at home. I would be very happy with an entertaining draw.