Fourteen Years Later, Here We Go Again

 There is something slightly surreal about a proper derby returning after fourteen years of radio silence.

We haven’t crossed the river to South Bermondsey for a competitive league fixture since 2012. Fourteen years. Entire football careers have begun, peaked, and disappeared into the coaching staff in that time. Children who watched that last game are now old enough to complain about the price of a pint.

And yet, despite all the inevitable noise surrounding Saturday, my overriding emotion is not trepidation. It is a mild, weary confusion as to why everyone is making such a monumental fuss.

This is Millwall away. It’s a derby. They’ll be up for it. We know this.

Millwall, naturally, will approach the afternoon as though the fate of Western civilisation depends upon three points against West Ham. They have the home crowd, the occasion, and that particular desperate energy of a side whose primary objective is to ruin their neighbour’s weekend.

Meanwhile, we have a promotion campaign to get on with.

I fully expect us to roll into South Bermondsey, take the three points, and continue merrily marching towards the Premier League while everyone else gets increasingly emotional about it.

Spare a thought, though, for the travelling support. They must first negotiate the narrow thoroughfares around South Bermondsey, presumably while passing members of the local goon squad who remain convinced it is still 1982.

Then there is the small matter of spending ninety minutes inside The Den, which retains the dubious distinction of being the only football stadium in the country that somehow looks even more miserable than our own.

Still, form is on our side. The objective is clear. Three points are there for the taking.

We just need to get in, get the job done, get back over the Thames, and preferably leave the local population wondering what all the fuss was about.

A derby after fourteen years.

How very unnecessarily dramatic of everyone.