Millwall keep fans’ Premier League dream alive as Championship campaign restarts amid community drive

On Saturday, The Den will be a hive of activity as Championship football returns following a three-week break.

Given a win over Sunderland could take Millwall up to fourth in the table, there is naturally a buzz about the place as supporters dream about promotion to the Premier League.

“We have been close to getting into the play-offs over the last few years on a number of occasions and we’d love to gatecrash them,” Millwall CEO Steve Kavanagh tells Standard Sport.

“We would love to do more than that. But if we can get into the play-offs and then see what happens, it will be phenomenal.

“We are in a good place, but it is a very good league and no one is taking anything for granted. No one is sitting on their laurels over what we have achieved so far.”

The buzz of a possible promotion may be present at The Den on matchdays, but on Wednesday mornings a different kind of hum can be heard at the ground.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic the club have been running coffee mornings at the stadium, offering free coffee, tea and biscuits to anyone - not just Millwall fans.

Originally it was started as a way of combating loneliness for people hit by the pandemic and indeed one of the first families who visited hadn’t left their home for 18 months.

Now, though, with the UK gripped by a cost-of-living crisis, it has transformed into something much more than that.

“Footballers do live in a bubble world and maybe perhaps we do too to an extent, but when talking to the fans and what they’re dealing with, you do get that feeling that there are problems,” says Kavanagh.

“We started the coffee mornings as the country was coming out of Covid. We recognised that fans hadn’t been out and about, so that’s when we started them. That was a time for addressing loneliness.

“It still addresses that, but also this gives them a chance to come out without spending a lot of money and talk to people with a common theme in their lives. We get some fantastic feedback about how we are running the club. Some of it a bit too close to the mark!”

The coffee mornings are just one of a number of initiatives Millwall, and other EFL clubs, are running to help fight the cost-of-living crisis currently impacting the UK.

Millwall are encouraging fans to donate to the Lions Food Hub foodbank, while 10 tickets are also offered to families who attend it. Similarly, Millwall have also offered 20 tickets to local foodbanks for games, with a food voucher attached so those attending can get a free drink and meal.

The club are running a ‘donate a coat’ scheme, with first-team players donating last season’s bench coats and fans urged to offer unused ones of theirs'.

“We need to recognise how important clubs as community assets are,” says Kavanagh. “When you get into the fan-led review, actually it is all about how these clubs that aren’t in the Premier League are so important to their communities. They matter.

“It what’s makes you really proud about running a club. Yes, the football on a Saturday is important, but the work that goes on behind the scenes is phenomenal and something that everyone should be really proud of.”