As a kid, for me the football season didn’t really start until the first league match at The Den. The Charity Shield never appealed, nor the League Cup first round, first leg (anyone remember that?)
If our first league game was away it was always a little disappointing, but come that opener at The Den, you knew you could usually guarantee a special, almost party atmosphere – even if it sometimes quickly dissipated by the end of the match – or earlier!
This season is different. It is a season like no other.
Once again, we’ve seen the team strengthened through the summer, which always adds to the excitement and anticipation of the campaign’s start. This time however that anticipation is bittersweet. The opening match at The Den isn’t just the first opportunity to see our team in Championship action for the first time. It’s much more than that.
It’s an opportunity to pay our respects to an amazing owner and Chairman in John Berylson.
Since the tragic news broke almost six weeks ago there have been thousands of tributes paid by Millwall supporters right across the globe. The first opportunity they had to do it together was in the friendly at Gillingham but this Saturday the entire club has the chance to reflect, remember, and say ‘thank you’.
Since John Berylson took over the club back in 2007 there has been an almost constant upward trajectory in Millwall Football Club’s fortunes. Sure, there have been setbacks along the way, but it is how the club reacted to those setbacks that truly sets these last 16 years apart from, in my opinion, any other spell in the history of the club.
Looking back to 2007, at one point the club was staring League Two football in the face.
Since then, we’ve enjoyed five trips to Wembley – four in play-off finals (when we hadn’t even managed to win a play-off tie before) an FA Cup semi-final at the national stadium and two quarter finals. Two of those play-off finals were of course triumphant but the way they were achieved is the real difference, coming off the back of final heartache the season before.
As Millwall supporters we have become accustomed to coming close to glory and having it snatched away from us. Relegation almost always meant at least five or six seasons of decline and change of ownership.
Uncertainty, for many years, was our only certainty.
That all changed when John Berylson took over. His never-say-die attitude mirrored that of The Lions’ fans. A man with a background that couldn’t be more different to that of the club he took to his heart, quickly became one of our own.
In the past, we were used to being deserted when the going got tough. John Berylson just got tougher, and with him, Millwall did too. It’s not just about what happens on the pitch either. How many times have we seen our star players sold off before they had the chance to bloom, see a mass exodus after relegation or be told that we’d have to “sell before we can buy”?
Those days seem a long way back in the past now.
The Millwall that John Berylson has built is stable, secure and just keeps on getting stronger and stronger. Not just because he supported us financially, he also supported us with his heart and soul.
So wherever you are as 3pm approaches this Saturday, take a moment to think about the Millwall that John Berylson built.
Think about Neil Harris scoring at The Den against Leeds in 2009 to give us our first ever play-off win.
Think about Jimmy Abdou’s goal that got us to the final at Elland Road.
Think about Gary Alexander’s wonder goal at Wembley and how we shrugged off the disappointment of that day to return the next year, when our own Paul Robinson scored in both semi and final to help us win promotion.
Think about those cup runs, reaching the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and those magical matches at The Den when Premier League teams – including the reigning league champions – were beaten.
Think about how we recovered from relegation to reach a play-off final again and then, like before, picked ourselves up after defeat and went one better the next year. Since then, we’ve seen the club in the most stable state that it has ever been.
It may not compare with the memories that Manchester City or Liverpool fans have, but by Millwall standards, it’s pretty bloody good.
It’s a day that should be about celebrating those memories and showing our gratitude to the entire Beryslon family for John Berylson’s incredible legacy.
People have long pointed out how John Beryslon supported Millwall Football Club in monetary terms.
What can’t be measured, or ever repaid, is the immense debt we owe him in terms of the sheer heart and soul that he put into our football club.
It was a Fantastic day, result forgotten, it was GREAT to see his family following in his footsteps Onward & Upward, and the video showing the admiration of JB especially by former managers. R.I.P