Lengthy shot it might be however with two video games plus the play offs to go, Millwall’s ascension from the Championship stays a dwell prospect. A membership like few if any others within the English sport, with a fanbase who love nothing greater than the distaste their membership engenders in others, within the high flight? If nothing else it will make the 2025-26 Premier League not like another.
It’s nonetheless unlikely to come back to that, however the prospect is altogether extra dwell on the finish of Easter Monday than it was initially. The incumbents of the final two playoff spots, Coventry Metropolis and Bristol Metropolis, had been each felled by relegation-threatened opponents. Middlesbrough, on the surface wanting in, ended up with nothing to indicate from their journey to Sheffield Wednesday. In the meantime Alex Neil’s aspect greater than saved up their finish of the discount, responding to a bruising defeat at Blackburn on Friday with a convincing 3-1 win at Norwich.
They’ll nonetheless want extra breaks to go their method. With two video games to go they sit three factors out of sixth with an inferior purpose distinction. They’ll want not less than one among Coventry or Bristol Metropolis to drop factors in each video games. If Middlesbrough win out they’d seemingly want fifth and sixth to break down. All that whereas beating Swansea and Burnley of their remaining video games.
Spectacular win over Norwich
On Monday’s proof, the latter just isn’t past the realms of risk. Millwall have now gained 5 of their final seven at a stage of the season the place momentum appears to be the Championship’s most beneficial commodity. Their efficiency in opposition to Norwich could not assist however encourage questioning of what may occur in the event that they each make the play offs and win at Wembley.
“The best way they strategy the sport is like grassroots soccer for the skilled sport,” says CBS Sports activities analyst Nigel Reo-Coker, a person who is aware of all too nicely how powerful an away task Millwall is. “They might carry an electrical environment, an underdog vitality, As their music goes, nobody likes them, they do not care. It is the membership that is from the improper aspect of the tracks they usually’re happy with it.
“They love being an underdog, love going through adversity and being in opposition to the world. The environment for the Premier League in each sport can be completely electrical, you could not put it into phrases, you’d should be within the stadium.”
In pure footballing phrases, Millwall would make for an intriguing counterbalance to so many others within the league. If footballing philosophies typically put one in thoughts of inverting full backs, ball-playing middle backs and a coveting of possession above nearly anything, Millwall are a reminder that identification might be about greater than fairly passing and neatly coordinated strikes.
Maybe they may play hold ball, however it will not be very Millwall. On the sector they mirror who the membership have been off it. The caricatures of hooliganism have grow to be precisely that, however the Lions take satisfaction of their anachronism, in going in opposition to the grain and winding up the opposite workforce.
When it is all in concord, The Den roars.
Norwich averaged the second most possession within the Championship going into this sport. Millwall’s response was easy. If you need the ball, hold it? We cannot want it for lengthy. Hit the massive males up high, get the ball out to the flanks and win your duels. When it really works in addition to it did right this moment, Millwall’s soccer is a thrill to look at and a nightmare to play in opposition to.
A high-pressing frontline pressured a mistake from the workforce in yellow inside simply eight minutes, the type of clumsy flick across the nook to nobody specifically that you simply could not think about is within the Millwall coaching handbook. One cross then one other rained on the Norwich purpose, Femi Azeez’s hitting what gave the impression to be an unsuspecting Mihailo Ivanovic. The Den did not care, cheering their “large f—ing Serbian” to the rafters. They know what they like round these elements. It would not be the final event they confirmed their adoration of the 20 yr outdated from Novi Unhappy.
For all Norwich’s possession, they may scarcely discover a method by the Millwall line, failing to register a shot till American Josh Sargent curled extensive with half an hour to play. A Shane Duffy header from a lifeless ball gave them hope simply earlier than the break, however they had been by no means about to win a set piece match with Millwall. In the end, it will be the final shot the throttled Canaries took. The superb Azeez had flicked residence one nook within the first half, 6ft 2in Ivanovic would get a second for himself and third for Millwall within the second.
As information filtered in of outcomes elsewhere, The Den’s anticipation was palpable. Two extra wins and who is aware of, maybe a 3rd season within the high flight after that transient flirtation between 1988 and 1990.
What would they create to the Premier League?
Given the status of Millwall’s travelling followers that may give some within the Premier League sleepless nights, it have to be famous that the membership has labored tirelessly to distance itself from the worst of its fanbase, to succeed in out to the communities in south London who would by no means dreamed to enter The Den within the Nineteen Seventies or 80s. Its neighborhood belief is award-winning, working tirelessly to advertise inclusion in Southwark. The membership has tailored as its neighborhood of Bermondsey has; the path to The Den could be foreboding however as soon as you might be exterior it’s the similar wealthy tapestry of craft beers, burger bars and insipid Oasis on the audio system.
Nonetheless, the sides haven’t been completely smoothed. As Jean-Phillipe Mateta, not solely the sufferer of a kick to the top by goalkeeper Liam Roberts, but in addition the topic of cruel chanting in its aftermath, can attest, there could be a merciless humorousness to the Millwall repertoire. On Monday, each Norwich throw in was greeted with a surge of jeers, a misplaced cross drawing nearly as a lot delight as an personal purpose. Few floor do schadenfreude like this one.
Within the Premier League it would get a bit extra vituperative, actually when West Ham come to city. Their rivalry with Millwall is as hostile because it will get within the English sport, one courting again to the times of dock employees competing for enterprise in addition to outcomes. At its worst, as within the 2009 riots the place 20 folks had been injured, issues on the pitch really feel like an irrelevance. Those that have performed in that grudge match, nevertheless, don’t find yourself with that impression.
“I keep in mind plenty of police, a uncooked, electrical environment, a deep and passionate rivalry, one of many best in English soccer,” says Reo-Coker, whose West Ham aspect misplaced 1-0 at The Den in 2004. “It is a satisfaction sport, a hatred sport even. Each golf equipment would in all probability say they do not care how the remainder of the season goes so long as they win that one sport. The strain was all the time on the gamers to carry out, the gamers knew it.
“In fact it is closely policed and segregated as a result of it is a uncooked hatred.
The noise was continuous, fixed singing. It was like grassroots soccer at knowledgeable degree, uncooked ardour. Each sort out mattered, each throw in. It was emotional, an electrical vitality for 90 minutes the place you did not wish to find yourself on the dropping aspect.”
The Met Police may not have such fond reminiscences of the derby, nor would they relish one other season that pits Millwall in opposition to Leeds, a sport rife with enmity from the times of dueling hooligan companies from the Nineteen Eighties. The final assembly between Chelsea and Millwall in 1995 required the intervention of mounted police. Crystal Palace’s subsequent go to after the Mateta incident would even be contentious.
The Lions within the high flight then, not with out its issues, and in the interim nonetheless a fairly unlikely conclusion to the 2024-25 season. Had been it to come back to cross, nevertheless, you’ll be able to relaxation assured that the Premier League wouldn’t have seen something like Millwall.
