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Millwall now have restrictions on who can and cannot go into games at The New Den following the decisions of the Metropolitan Police. Only season ticket holders and Supporters’ Club members can attend games. With it being the first game of the season the police allowed them to relax the rule and allow people in on day passes but even so only 7,177 were at the game.
Last season’s average attendance at Millwall was 13,253 and the lowest was 10,021 for the visit of Barnsley. There could be more of this to come and The Kebab Seller will be getting worried about the loss of income, it was certainly his only apparent worry on the day the bans were announced.
Meanwhile at Selhurst Park was the game between Franchise FC and Gillingham and the official attendance here was just 2,476. You might think that was low but it was, from our sources, not the real attendance but the official attendance. Mr. Franchise Charles Koppel had said earlier in the week that the attendance would be between 2,400 and 2,500 and lo and behold it was. We believe that the real attendance was about half that.
There were far more fans outside the ground and not just Gillingham and AFC Wimbledon fans. They were joined by supporters from other clubs including Palace (you wouldn’t expect them to travel as far as Preston) and supporters from Premiership clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham. Good on you and here’s to the crowds getting smaller (if indeed that is possible).
On the pitch the day’s hero had to be Rotherham striker Darren Byfield who hit four as they gave Millwall a stuffing at the deserted New Den and there was no doubt that the 6-0 win was the result of the day. It is said that Millwall boss Mark McGhee was less than impressed and is threatening to get rid of some of the players.
All three relegated clubs won their first games whilst there were mixed fortunes for the promoted clubs with one winning (I wonder who), one drawing and one losing.
Harry Redknapp has certainly been busy at Fratton Park and although he only took over at the end of March there were only three players in the starting line up who were there on the day he took over. He included seven summer signings and Eddie Howe who he signed from Bournemouth on transfer deadline day.
It is fair to say the crowds turned up for the first day and the average crowd was 18,460 (or 17,127 if you really do feel the need to include matches involving franchised clubs).
Burnley’s gate was higher just a touch higher than for the first home game last season but must have been a blow after they had said they were expecting a 16,000 plus crowd.
Incredibly the programme for yesterday’s game had a league table in with Burnley third on alphabetical order. With that in mind we dropped fifteen places yesterday. There is no chance to recover this midweek with Ipswich Town’s involvement in Europe keeping us out of action and then its off to Wolves where we can expect to play in front of a 20,000 plus crowd.
It will be worth keeping a look out this week on the away followings at Grimsby on Tuesday and Watford next Saturday as they play host to Franchise FC.