In the Dockers for this one (19 upper).

Also truncated travel owing to the ubiquitous weekend rail engineering works.

Dorchester South 🚆to Bournemouth

Bournemouth 🚎 bus replacement service to Southampton Central

Southampton Central 🚆 to London Waterloo

London Waterloo 🚉 tube to London Blackfriars

London Blackfriars 🚇 Thameslink to London Bridge

London Bridge 🚃 to South Bermondsey

Journey time 3 hrs 25mins

Normally it would be Waterloo East to South Bermondsey via London Bridge.

Alternatively you can do Clapham Junction to West Norwood and then train to South Bermondsey.

All this just goes to show how complicated some of the rail network is to get your your football stadium of choice.

Well so much as happened since I last wrote.

The Esse money hot the bank and the transfer window and signings has been unbelievable.

The greatest outlay has been for Algerian Camiel Neghli.

3.5m spent and looks ready-made – if he’s only half a Mahrez then it’s a superb creative addition.

Luke Cundle is a player I’m well aware of and 1.2m is an absolute steal.

Add to that Baker-Boalty, a winger from Brighton, a young French centre-forward from FC Paris when all the initial talk weeks ago was about Jeff Schlupp being seen at the training ground, things have gone a bit crazy.

Talk of Lovelace coming back, Emakhu back in training and Femi can’t be far behind, the emergence of one Raees Bangura-Williams and the BFS scoring all types of goals, the immediate outlook is bright.

THE VISITORS

West Bromwich Albion have a play-off berth at the moment and will present a touch challenge but like many of the play-off contenders they can be hit and miss and I’m saying they are beatable on the day.

Of course last season I got to tick The Hawthorns off visiting with Aldershot Town in the FAC3.

Jed Wallace captained them in the last game. 42 goals in 239 (including the two loan spells) appearances for the Lions.

Mikey Johnston would definitely be one to try and keep quiet while their number one striker Josh Maja remains sidelined.

Tony Mowbray has recently returned as first team manager, sixteen years after he departed.

MILLWALL 2 QUEENS PARK RANGERS 1

Coventry pretty much filled North lower – embarrassing from QPR.

This post will be updated further on the day of the game, Saturday 15th February, 2025.

Following the sad passing of John Docherty this week I am sure there will be tributes and a minutes applause prior to kick off.

A Glaswegian, John Docherty was team manager during arguably one of the most exciting and successful periods in Millwall:s history.

Cascarino, Sheringham, Carter, Hurlock, Dawes… household names in a pack of lions that fought their way into the top flight and had they stayed a little longer could have taken part in what is now the English Premier League .

Those days and nights under the Doc’s tenure at Cold Blow Lane stand out strong in my memory.

The midweek 4-1 win over Coventry City, today’s opponents that sent the Lions top of the league

The midweek win, 4-2 over Sheffield Wednesday where they’d rescued it from being 0-2 down at half time.

And even though they lost this game at home to Norwich, what a game, what an atmosphere, was on TV live on the Sunday…

Have to add that I was a bit surprised that the Doc was as old as 84 too – goes to show that as managers come and go and as years roll on we tend to not think about them so much as we should.

I will raise a can in his memory on the journey up – it’s a sombre occasion but I hope it will be a minutes applause rather than silence to remember and rejoice everything John Docherty did for Millwall Football Club.

ORIGINAL POST

I would like to make a proper day out for this one, wanting to pick up those two retro shirts first and then heading back to London Bridge area for lunch.

The problem is there’s very little around the New Den and even if you took another stop down from South Bermondsey station and got off at Queens Road Peckham there’s very little there either.

I read up on Beer Rebellion which has changed hands and apparently the beer menu is much depleted from what it was and is described as a “weird little pub” by one reviewer on Instagram.

As a fan of real ale my mission would be to find a pub that suits near to London Bridge station.

A search to that end brought up The Shipwrights and The Horseshoe (pictured below).

The ales look decent enough – let’s hope the food is, if not there are plenty of eateries around.

This will mean an 8am start, earlier than usual.

MATCH TICKET 🎫

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Area: 03 Row: E Seat: 62

Hopefully the Lions will still be top ten, depending on what they get at Oxford. They’ll have a game in hand as well after Tuesday’s lights out fiasco at Fratton Park.

My take on the Sunderland game was seeing the team sheet and thinking don’t play Honeyman as the ten. Harris abandoned that idea at half-time.

I would rather see Azeez and Emakhu on the flanks and maybe Esse as the ten or even Langstaff if he is going to play Coburn up top.

Cooper is a huge miss at the back obviously and I was saying to the old man next to me if he was playing, Sunderland don’t get that goal.

And it reminded me of the 1999 Auto Windscreens final a Wembley. Remember when Nethercott headed a clearance in the dying seconds and the Wigan player just ran in to score the winning goal.

One of the most sickening of moments seen from up the other end, watch this or don’t bother. 😐

I don’t think even the most die-hard Sunderland fan could have any complaints or say that deserved a point in the end. They probably got away with one as the Lions huffed and puffed and finally blew that door down. Here are my match highlights from yesterday.

This will be the first visit back to the New Den since Southampton in the FA Cup in 2012.

The ticket is for Cold Blow Lane (upper) previously called the South Stand.

Remembering the old days there would be stalls selling merchandise – I’m told that there’s only one now.

Ill be visiting the store and depending on stock be collecting these two shirts I used to have.

I’m also told that most fans nowadays don’t don replica shirts – that’s kind of frowned upon where adults are concerned though in my view these are made to be bought and shown – and remember the old adage – growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional. So I may conceal mine under the hoodie but travelling up and back on the train is a different kettle.

So what will have changed in this time? Firstly most who know me are aware that I’ve spent half a century almost travelling the length and breadth of the land watching Aldershot. Am I turning my back on the Shots? Certainly not. But Millwall, my Dad’s team, have also played a big part in both my upbringing and adult life.

I would say that Cold Blow Lane and the New Den combined, I’ve seen over a hundred home games.

Not just that but I’ve seen Millwall away at Old Trafford, Goodison Park as well as less glamorous places like Reading, Southampton, Oldham and Port Vale.

I can remember the days of Reg Burr as chairman, Theo Paphitas and players like chicken George, Peanut and Rhino of course.

The problem with Aldershot Town now, once a proud member of the Football League IS the Chairman. Azeem came from Woking and has no interest in the club, appointing a procession of questionable managers.

And as a true football fan when you are one of 75 away fans at Barrow on a cold wet Saturday in December on a 700 mile round trip, that’s a bit of a marker I think – I put myself in that category.

So with little prospect of Aldershot gaining Football League status anytime soon, I want to be happy on a Saturday or whenever.

Anyway, let’s move on to this weekend.

As we can see, the Lions are top ten and after a very decent run of results and some impressive defensive displays, are play-offs botherers.

Sunderland visit on Saturday top of the pile and have sold out their 3,000 allocation.

Of course they are beatable: anyone can beat anyone on their day in the topsy turvy Championship.

And I’ll be prepared to travel home disappointed too – it simply won’t be the end of the world if Sunderland take all three points but I’d hope Millwall can prove a tough test for them.

So far as players go in my fantasy team, I have three of these in O’Nien, Mundle and Isador.

What, no Millwall?! Well it’s served me well so far but with my free transfer this week I may want to add Cooper or Tanganga

After the game for sure I’ll write a match report and post it up in this new chapter of life with the Lions.