John Smith's PNE fans' panel verdict: A day when neither team did enough to earn three points

I thought it was probably a fair result as neither side did enough to deserve three points from this ‘High Noon’ encounter.

The raucous atmosphere I expected was cranked up a notch as the teams came out of the tunnel, with the home side’s slightly intimidating classic anthem ‘Let Em Come’ blasted out by the tannoy.

Despite having had to get up for their journey before the roosters had signalled the dawning of a new day, large numbers of our travelling faithful had indeed ‘All come down to The Den’ to cheer their team on.

The New Den had been opened in August 1993 by my namesake, the then Labour party leader John Smith.

By way of a further coincidence, another Smith – North End’s Michael – opened the scoring when he pounced on a defensive error on the quarter-hour.

The goal had the effect of dampening down the home fans’ noise level while, at the other end, I – along with the rest of the delighted travelling fans – was dreaming of what would have been four wins on the spin.

This scenario lasted for only a short time as the home side recovered to get back on the front foot, which caused the noise levels to rise again.

Although Santa’s sleigh and reindeers are still parked up at his North Pole grotto, it became our turn to hand out an early Christmas present.

This occurred when goalkeeper Daniel Iversen made a fresh air kick as the ball was passed back to him, which giftwrapped the home side an easy tap-in.

It was unfortunate for us that Iversen who, in my opinion, is the early pacesetter for this season’s player of the year trophy made a mistake I had not seen the like of since a Tepi Moilanen gaffe at Norwich over 20 years ago.

Our keeper has won us so many points this season, which was recognised by our fans who chanted his name shortly after his misdemeanour.

The Millwall fans sarcastically clapped and cheered Iversen as he took to the field in front of them for the start of the second half.

They also jeered his every touch but were forced to eat their words around the hour when he pushed a goalbound header past the post.

For long periods after the opening goal, I thought we had not really looked like scoring another.

I was slightly more optimistic in feeling that our attacking options looked a lot better when Alfie Devine, Thierry Small and Lewis Dobbin were brought on in the second half.

After our run of three wins on the spin, I would have taken a point before the game kicked off.

In recent years we have struggled to get wins at this venue, with this result meaning that it is now three draws and four losses since our last win there in February 2019.

I thought it was a typically tight Championship game which could have gone any way.

Therefore I left the stadium for home, not disappointed with what I would consider to be a hard-earned point.