MILLWALL columnist MATT LITTLE suggests the club’s hierarchy need to deliver a measured response to the Wembley incident as opposed to one which keeps the tabloids happy, otherwise they risk further alienating an already frustrated innocent majority.

I USED to play in a staff football team with a Spanish goalkeeper who had been on the books of Atletico Madrid right up until the age of 17 before injury and fate forced him down another path, which turned out to be teaching Spanish at a secondary school in Brighton.

I’m a central defender by trade, only average Saturday standard, and it was only playing in front of him I realised how good professional players must be.

He saved everything, one-on-ones, headers and shots right into the corners, penalties, the lot.

We won every game we played, as he never conceded a goal, and having a pretty handy ex-Brighton trainee up front too meant we were known as the Bayern Munich of inter-school staff football in the Brighton and East Sussex area, quite an accolade I’m sure you will agree.

Anyway, we used to talk about football a lot and when he found out that I supported Millwall he was keen to find out more about a club that he had heard so much about in films and sometimes on the evening news, but which he knew little of the real things – where we played, what division we were in and who supported us.

The thing which amazed him the most was how many people went to watch us on a regular basis.

He explained a club like Millwall simply wouldn’t exist in Spain.

No one would support a club that had only played two seasons of top flight football in their entire history, who played a short tube ride away from some of the biggest clubs in the world and who had the worst supporter reputation in the country.

When I went on to highlight the fact it was even worse than he imagined, that our catchment area was inner-city London and all the problems that come with that – areas of extreme deprivation alongside areas of transient workers with no affiliation for the area or club – he just shook his head in astonishment.

“Wait, there’s more,” I said.

Forget the fact Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are just down the tube line, we’re hemmed in to the east by a club which gives tickets away like confetti and who are cheaper and more successful than us,.

To the south is a club who have a history of stealing our best players and of exciting promotions and to the north is the physical barrier which is the Thames.

“What about to the west” he asked.

I sullenly informed him this was where the aforementioned Chelsea, champions of Europe, played, as well as the friendly and established Premier League side Fulham.

“And there’s even more,” I exclaimed.

For a period we had to buy tickets in advance, after handing in personal details and a passport picture, just to gain entry to our own ground in order to watch second-rate football and get harassed by over-zealous stewards.

We still do for all of our away fixtures.

“So why on earth do you bother then?” he gently asked, almost with heartfelt and genuine concern for my mental well-being.

And it’s a fair enough question.

I guess, like the other 8-10,000 regulars who go through thin and thinner, be it struggling in the Championship or League One, jumping through membership hoops and early kick-off times, it’s because it’s in my blood.

I’ve touched on this before, but there are a few things Millwall fans can be proud of and which keep us regulars going no matter what – we are a family club in its purest form and our home record is something to be truly proud throughout the entire Football League.

I would argue that 90 percent of the average crowd at The Den are connected to the club through Millwall families going back a few generations and this reflected in the stands.

And as for my home record boast, well, it’s there for all to see if you Google it.

Yet this last year or so those two points of pride down at The Den have taken a massive knock.

Our home form over the last year has been horrific, the worse run in 128 years.

Last night’s defeat against Blackburn was shockingly the 10th of the season and the treatment of fans putting up with this form hasn’t exactly been great either.

We’ve had various controversial banning orders, Sordell-gate and now condemnation of some season ticket holders who haven’t had a fair trial yet.

I won’t go in to the ins and outs, as it is a sensitive issue and should be kept in-house, but the club need to be very delicate with how they deal with the fallout from Wembley.

Non-Millwall fans can mock us all they want for our ‘low’ crowds, but the club need to realise the 13,000 or so season ticket holders and members we have are some of the most loyal fans in the country.

Just ask a Spanish teacher living in Brighton.

So it would be unwise to test their patience next season with more poor and seemingly disinterested loan signings, which have made us one of the easiest teams to roll over at home in the league, or to happily go along with the tabloid press’ agenda in portraying all Millwall fans as pariahs without trial or deliberation.

I can tell you for nothing the big headline writers won’t be there at home to, God forbid, Crawley Town et al, but they’ll be hoping the loyal fans will be.

The club need to remember this when kow-towing to the media.

Having got that of off my chest, we now need to get as many of those 13,000 or so fans down to The Den for the next two games to save our Championship status.

Then we can worry about rebuilding the team and how we can get more of them and the Wembley brigade to go to games against Derby County, rather than Port Vale, at a happy and contented Den.

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