NEWS Shopper online’s Millwall columnist MATT LITTLE looks back on 2011, a year which began with a 3-0 win home win over Crystal Palace and ended with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of their south London rivals.

A YEAR really is a long time in football.

Rewind to January 2011 and Kenny is King as the Lions sit in a very respectable seventh place after the Ultras of Palace have been sent packing with their tails firmly between their legs thanks to a Jason Puncheon hat-trick.

Fast forward to January 2012 and Jackett is facing his first real crisis as selection and transfer policies are called into question as the Lions are left in a relegation scrap thanks to a lacklustre surrender to the mighty Eagles.

Getting beat by Palace at home is like losing an arm wrestling contest to a girl in front of yours mates - humiliating.

If it has ever happened to you then you need to seriously consider giving playing Angry Birds on your phone a miss for a bit and getting to a gym.

Interestingly, the last time Palace won at The Den you wouldn’t have even been able to play Angry Birds on a phone, the best you could have hoped for was Snakes, and even then that would be pushing it.

Indeed, it was so long ago Gary Barlow was simply a fat boyband member no-one liked (still is to me – sports ed), Arsenal were considered boring and old fashioned and the Palace Ultras would have been toddlers.

Millwall were also a complete mess and were relegated in the most bizarre circumstances having been top in December and ‘bolstered’ by the signing of two Russian internationals in the January.

So, does a rare home defeat to Palace point to another relegation then?

Even when they’ve had better footballers than us, we’ve always simply kicked them back to the suburbs, leaving them to cry about those rough Millwall boys.

Perhaps that’s why they took up bullying harmless old Brighton?

They say every bully has his own issues and is probably being bullied himself.

It’s the only way to explain such nasty behaviour on their part.

Anyways, I will give them their due in one respect.

I’ve mocked them in the past for their pomposity, especially when they’ve spent nearly as many seasons playing third division football as us, but they have always had a go at backing it up.

Millions and millions have been pumped into the Eagles over the decades, all in an effort to realise their dream of becoming the Arsenal of south London.

We’ve only shown that kind of ambition once in 1988.

Amazingly it worked, yet the club have never tried it again.

My point is it’s all very well getting on Jackett’s back, but in reality he is doing an amazing job with the resources available.

People only have to look at Forest’s, Ipswich’s and Sheffield United’s wage bills to see my point.

Who should we lynch then - the board for not spending big?

After all, John Berylson did hint at having a ‘real go’, but so far that hasn’t materialised.

The stay-away fans?

Millwall have enough supporters to fill our modest 14,000 home seats every game.

I think we just have to face the fact that we are a yo-yo club - too good for League One but unable to compete long-term in the Championship.

Unless the board are willing to risk their own money, we will forever be stuck in this cycle.

Millwall have won 25 footballing honours and promotions in their 126-year history, more than any of our south London rivals.

However, the bulk of them have been for winning promotion from the Third tier - six in total.

I will criticise Jackett for chopping and changing of the team, though, and the sometimes negative tactics.

Last night the changes looked to have been behind a good performance against Bristol City.

Sadly the negative tactics cost us dear.

City were there for the taking, but an injury-time goal sunk us, as we failed to score yet again.

It will be a tough year ahead unless we can find a way of actually putting the ball into the net.

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