MILLWALL columnist MATT LITTLE feels this will be a crucial summer ahead where some big decisions need to be made about where the club is going in the long-term.

AT least we keep it exciting down at Millwall, no last day tedium for us.

Oh no, we've kept our season alive right until the final kick with a number of different scenarios to be played out over the course of 90 minutes on Saturday.

And what of the last day permutations for the Lions?

Well, if we beat Derby County at Pride Park we stay up.

Simple, no matter what others do.

In fact, if we simply avoid defeat to the Rams we will stay up by virtue of the fact Huddersfield are playing Barnsley because, depending on the outcome there, we will finish above one or both of them with just a draw v Derby, no matter if Huddersfield or Barnsley win, or they draw.

If the worst happens and we lose and both Peterborough United and Barnsley win, then we can still pray Sheffield Wednesday slip up at home to Middlesbrough, which would keep us up.

It would certainly be interesting should Barnsley and Peterborough both be winning comfortably and we're losing by one goal and Wednesday are drawing in the final minutes.

Agonisingly it would be the Owls staying up at our expense on goal difference, should a Millwall defeat and Wednesday draw be the final result.

However, a last-gasp Millwall equaliser or a Middlesbrough winner would save us.

Indeed, even if we were thrashed by Derby, a Middlesbrough win means we’d be playing Queens Park Rangers rather than Port Vale next season.

The good thing for the Lions is by picking up a point last night against the Eagles, we’ve made them need a result against Peterborough United to secure a play-off berth.

Plus we've given ourselves the slight breathing space that Barnsley need to win their Yorkshire derby at in-form Huddersfield to finish above us, and the Posh need to ruin Palace's season with a win at Selhurst Park to do the same.

The fact it has come to this means the chairman and manager have a lot to think about over the summer months, whatever division we find ourselves in.

It is damning of Kenny Jackett's team building that the fans have chased the carthorse that is Rob Hulse out of the squad and Jackett himself had to do the same to the woeful Danny N'Guessan last night.

And without laying into other individuals, who to be fair looked liked they cared and gave their all last night, the 0-0 scoreline, and the fact we could still be out there now and not have scored against a very average Crystal Palace side, is proof enough this squad needs a massive overhaul.

The thing which has always confused me about John Berylson's strategy is he is a wealthy enough man to pour enough money into the club to make us serious promotion contenders, and therefore get the missing fans, which he is always banging on about, filling The Den week in and week out.

But at the moment he is just pouring £4m to £5m a year into the massive block hole that is Millwall FC by trying to do things on a budget and with only hardcore fans turning up to see us struggle because of it.

We are in the sincerest way possible grateful to him for this, but it still doesn't mean it makes any sense as a way to run an unfashionable football club with cynical and success starved fans who don't turn up.

In America I am sure if you are seen to improve the product, which he has, then you see a return in the form of more support.

Sadly English football fans, especially Millwall fans, are a lot more fickle than that.

After so many false dawns and years in the doldrums, we need more than a nice day out at Wembley to convince the stayaways SE16 is the place to be on Saturdays and cold Tuesday nights.

All I will say to him is when Reg Burr showed serious ambition in the 1980s, at a time when Millwall and football had even more problems than now, our gates nearly quadrupled in the space of three years.

The Millwall fans, all of them, responded to the club finally shaking off its tag of also-runs.

Of course if he wants to pack away his toys and spend his money on something else and leave us to our fate then that's his right.

I actually couldn't blame him.

But the fact he's thrown £20m down the black hole already, and as the regeneration moves closer and closer, it might make him think twice about just walking away.

Besides, I genuinely believe he has become emotionally attached to us, God help him.

This can be a successful club and this is not the height of our potential.

But we will need more than cast offs from other mediocre Championship clubs as loan signings to reach it, as proved by a unprecedented 11 home defeats and one of our smallest ever crowds against our fiercest south London rivals.

It's a pity those oddball Ultras didn't have their Sixth Form banner out last night about 'Crossroads', because if we stay up then this summer is one of the biggest crossroads in our recent history.

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