As a Millwall fan pushes Clough, runs across the pitch, then is able to escape and leave the stadium unopposed, the South London club and their fans will be wondering why they bother to have any sort of security set up at all.

Millwall endured a tough day at The Den in the Championship as they went down 5-1 to a free-flowing Derby side on Saturday.

Clearly angered by his team’s failure to perform, one Millwall fan managed to get on to the pitch and into the dug-out, where he pushed 47-year-old Derby County manager Nigel Clough before being chased off by Rams coach Andy Garner.

Following the success of his push, the presumably drunken supporter was able to continue the entire way across the pitch, into the stand opposite and eventually out of the ground itself with just a few angry words from Lions captain Danny Shittu for punishment – thanks to some largely disinterested stewarding.

Watch the Millwall fan invading the pitch against Derby below:

Garner told BBC Radio Derby:

It’s not very nice and obviously the guy didn’t have anything in his hand but you just don’t know, do you?

He shouldn’t be on the pitch in the first place. We will get on with it.

I didn’t know where he was going. I just saw him put his hand on the gaffer, which I wasn’t very happy about.

I was trying to get him off and then he ran off. But there was no chance of me catching him that’s for sure so I did a couple of yards of a jog.

It’s a hostile place. The fans are passionate and he had his point to make. Luckily nobody got hurt.

Garner also explained how defender Adam Smith was substituted for his own safety after several objects were hurled at him from the crowd:

The ref was trying to get Adam away from things because when you’re taking a throw-in, they’re not very far away.

All I could see was streams of fans coming down to the front and I thought: ‘This could get out of hand’.

I had a quick word with the gaffer and we said: ‘Let’s get him off’. He was on a yellow card anyway, so we were a little bit concerned about that.

And with the score as it was, there was no problem getting Kieron Freeman on to calm the situation down a bit.

I’m not saying we did it solely for that reason but it certainly helped the situation, I thought.