Nothing To See Here

Millwall 0 - Charlton Athletic 0

Move along, nothing to see here.

Millwall have extremely poor crowds on a weekly basis. 

 Despite protesting they have no feelings regarding us 'trainspotters' from down the road, over the last few years, they've always had their biggest home gate of the season when the Addicks travel the 4 miles West.

In turn, despite having a woeful record at the Den, Charlton supporters have clamoured for tickets at the Toolbox for the recent fixtures, then been really up for it once kick off time arrived.

Not this season.

This was the game that sneaked up on us.  Most supporters were looking at the game last weekend up at Sheffield and since then, events at the club have hardly generated any enthusiasm for people to purchase tickets if they hadn't already got them.

So, just 16,000 at the Den with 2,500 Addicks in attendance, Charlton failing to sell out the allocation.

Both teams were poor - Charlton had the better approach play but never looked like scoring, Millwall looked more likely to score but were often run ragged in the middle. Any Charlton dominance was just window dressing though as we were so lightweight and toothless in front of goal.

If ever there was a 0-0 draw it was this one. 

It was just like the game between the two teams earlier in the season, except on that occasion one side scored with a speculative shot that was more likely to trouble the ball boys, until it deflected into the home goal. 

Yesterday, we could have played a second 90 minutes and I'm pretty sure the score would have remained the same.

The 'famous' Lions roar at the Den never materialised. The atmosphere was fairly flat from both sets of supporters. Charlton fans and Millwall fans united in apathy for much of the game.

Highlights would be very difficult to pick out. 

My memories will all be about the fattest steward I've seen in my life, closely followed by the fattest female steward.

Post game, the Charlton support were held inside the ground until 5:30pm  "for our own safety", (the Millwall supporters can't be trusted to behave), so we wandered down into the main concourse under the stand. We could see it was getting rather cramped so turned around to walk back to our seats.

At that point a neon jacket sporting bloke, jumped out at me demanding to see my ticket!

I pointed out the game was now over and he seemed fairly shocked. 

I wonder how many people he sees arriving at 5:10pm, deciding the best part of the afternoon is watching the players perform their warm down?

In all honesty, if I had purchased a ticket for the after game stretches, I wouldn't have missed a thing.

It was all back to the OLB post game to sink some great beers and talk rubbish. 

Hardly a feast of football but it's a point gained that could be very, very useful over the coming weeks.