The Den: Millwall 1-0 Leeds United

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Millwall 1-0 Leeds United

Aerial shot of The Den (Bing Maps)

Programme - £3.00

Ratings
Overall Ground Quality : 7/10
Ease of getting there : 8/10
Atmosphere : 9/10
Programme : 6/10
View of Action : 8/10
Quality of the game : 6/10
The "football" feeling : 9/10
Chances of coming here for a random game : 2/10
Legroom : 9/10
Surrounding area : 3/10

Overall : 67/100

One of the many viaducts that lead to The Den

Adrian underneath the viaducts

...More viaducts

North Stand

The Barry Kitchener Stand

Cold Blow Lane End

The Dockers Stand

Adrian about to tuck into his Sausage, Bacon, Egg, Chips and Beans in the Millwall Cafe

Cold Blow Lane End and The Dockers Stand

The Barry Kitchener Stand

North Stand

The Dockers Stand

The Shard being constructed behind the North Stand in the distance

A view of Canary Wharf in the distance

The Barry Kitchener Stand

North Stand

The Dockers Stand

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Millwall 1-0 Leeds United

This is a trip Adrian has endured twice before our visit against of all teams to see play Millwall at The Den, Leeds United. Adrian first visited The Old Den in 1985 against Leicester City in the FA Cup and then visited the 'New' Den in 1994 again against Leicester City and on both occasions he didn't like it. He was even threatened with a knife on the tube back home by a Millwall fan which saw him run off the tube and the rest of the way to the station to get his train home.
We left at 7:30am and headed down a sun blinding M1 Southbound towards the outskirts of the capital.
We stopped briefly at Toddington services at 8:30am before continuing our journey.
We arrived at Kingsbury at just gone 9:15am and parked on our usual road, Melbury Road. We then took the Jubilee line from Kingsbury across the city to Canada Water before changing there and going on the London Overground line to Surrey Quays.
We arrived at Surrey Quays and made the short journey to the ground. We walked through a fairly new housing estate before reaching many dark, intimidating viaducts which we had to go through to get to the ground. When we reached the other end of the viaducts following many twists and turns, we suddenly found ourselves at an early 90's football stadium between railway viaducts and industrial buildings. Swarmed by the Police already preparing for what was expected to be a feisty affair, We decided to take photos of the exterior early making it easier for us later before taking the short walk to The Old Den and the famous Cold Blow Lane which has seen many fights during Millwall’s 83 year stay before being demolished in 1993. We then walked back towards The Den where we ate lunch at a café just outside the ground.
After we ate our Sausage, Egg, Beans and Chips (£5.00) and two rounds of tea (For me, Ross, having 1 tea and 1 coffee), we decided to have a look round at which route we should take for our journey back to Surrey Quays Tube Station later on. Once we found our ideal escape out of The Den, we bought our programmes and went in.
According to Wikipedia “The Den was the first new all seater stadium to be completed following the Hillsborough disaster. It was designed with effective crowd management in mind (given Millwall's crowd problems at the Old Den), with the escape routes being short and direct. After Chairman Reg Burr decided that it would not be viable to redevelop The Den as an all-seater stadium, he announced during 1990 that Millwall would be relocating to a new stadium in the Senegal Fields area. Originally, it was planned to have a seating capacity of between 25,000 to 30,000. Millwall however, could not meet the additional cost. Millwall played their final game on 8 May 1993 at The Den (Old) after 83 years, and moved to the new 20,000 all-seater stadium a quarter of a mile away from Cold Blow Lane. The £16 million Den was the first new football stadium constructed for a professional team in London since 1937.”
In front of the highest crowd of the season (up to the Leeds United fixture), Millwall beat a 10 man Leeds United by 1 goal to nil. The only goal of the match was scored by Millwall’s loanee Chris Wood. Leeds were the better team until Luke Varney was sent off by Mark Halsey for elbowing Millwall’s Adam Smith which saw the Millwall fans in the Kitchener Stand furious at Varney’s actions and surging towards the front of the bottom tier almost causing a riot. With the Millwall faithful getting more agitated and angry in their black flat caps and constant use of the word c*nt (sounding like cant), missiles started being launched between the Dockers stand and the North Stand.

At full time, we left prompt towards the footpath which saw police officers in two's dotted up the path underneath the viaducts. We arrived on the platform at 3:20pm and made the short journey up to Canada Water before changing to the Jubilee line for the rest our journey back up to Kingsbury.
We arrived back at Kingsbury and back in the car for 4:10pm got onto the M1 but this time heading Northbound back towards The Midlands.
We got home at 5:45pm.
Overall, even with the previous experiences which Adrian endured and negative reviews from other ground hoppers who have visited The Den, We enjoyed our visit and Adrian's third visit to Millwall.
The Den is located in an intimidating area with lots of barbed wire and dark tunnels to the ground which is very similar to The Old Den keeping the fear of visiting Millwall alive. The atmosphere was electric and saw the highest crowd of the season up to then. The game was very competitive and even saw a red card for Luke Varney and trouble between the supporters of both clubs with bottles and coins being exchanged across the two stands housing both sets of supporters.