Relegation could spell the end for Lions

By Ian Toal on November 22, 2007 12:00 AM |

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ANOTHER game, another injury and another league defeat. Saturday afternoons are starting to feel like Groundhog days this season.
The latest instalment was a trip down to Bristol Rovers where our most experienced fit midfielder and top scorer, Alan Dunne, picked up an early injury meaning we now have 14 players out injured. We are really struggling to field a side and have six loan signings at the club just so we can put a team out.
We were suckers to a terrible penalty decision that not even the home fans appealed for. The luck is certainly out, in league games at least for the Lions.

We all know that this is less than ideal as the last time we had that many loan signings we were relegated from the Championship and the huge number of loan signings was cited as one the contributory reasons why we did get relegated. At this point we don't have any choice in the matter unfortunately.
Kenny Jackett's hands are tied until some players return to fitness and, importantly for us. when the January transfer window opens.
It looks like some funds will need to be made available to Jackett then so he can strengthen his team and help to get us out of the mire.
Given the length of time our players are out for, come January we could be well and truly in deep trouble and will need a decent run of form to get out of trouble.
Speaking to different Millwall supporters on the train home from Bristol, everyone agreed that relegation would be such a disaster it might prove to be the end of our club altogether.
Relegation will produce a self-perpetuating story of disaster, smaller crowds meaning a smaller budget for the manager to work with, meaning poorer quality players, leading to worse results, leading to even fewer people coming through the turnstiles and less revenue.
Given that in the last couple of weeks it was announced that the club lost £5million in the year to May 31, 2007, to ask for more funds to be made available to the manager to make more player purchases seems naive.
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