Exclusive: Lee Hendrie names the 3 most intimidating EFL Championship fanbases | OneFootball

Speaking exclusively to FLW, Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie has identified his choices as the three most intimidating fanbases in the EFL Championship.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie has identified his three picks as the most intimidating fanbases in the EFL Championship.

The statistics bear it out, and it's always been the case.

Playing at home can confer a big advantage to a team. And while travel and unfamiliar surroundings can play a part in tilting the balance between a home team and an away team in a match, it's also the case that a hostile atmosphere from thousands of fans can also make a difference.

If anything, the 2025-26 Championship season is a bit of an outlier on this advantage not having been as great as normal. At the time of writing, 15 clubs out of 24 in the second tier have a higher points-per-game (PPG) at home than away. The comparison with the Premier League is stark. In the top flight, 18 out of 20 clubs have a higher PPG at home.

What is curious is that the size of the crowd doesn't seem to make that much of a difference to home records below the Premier League. Drop all the way down to the Northern Premier League, the seventh division down, where crowds are counted in hundreds rather than thousands, and 15 out of 21 clubs still have a higher PPG at home.

"...Always been an intimidating place" - Lee Hendrie makes his picks for the Championship's most intimidating fanbases

Football League World have spoken exclusively to Sky Sports Pundit Lee Hendrie about which fanbases in the Championship he would consider to be the most intimidating, and few would be surprised by his first choice: "Millwall has always been an intimidating place, I find it still is. I think it all depends on what kind of game it is and where they're at."

Lee's other two choices are both clubs who promoted into the Championship at the end of last season: "Birmingham can be an intimidating place for lots of teams to go to with their fanbase, also Wrexham as well."

But Lee also feels that this was a difficult choice to make: "It's very difficult to single one out, but they'd be the three that I'd be saying have intimidating fanbases, particularly at this time in the Championship, they'd be the ones I'd go with."

An intimidating fanbase is far from entirely about hooliganism

Few away fans who've made the journey from South Bermondsey station to be deposited at the away turnstiles will argue with Millwall being the most intimidating place in the Championship to visit. Although it's a relatively new-build of a stadium, having opened in 1993, its location between a railway line and a maze of small residential roads makes it a tricky place for away fans to visit.

But an intimidating atmosphere isn't necessarily related to hooliganism. It can just be a sheer volume of noise and hostility, and Millwall more than manage this at their home matches too. This is the same for Birmingham City and Wrexham. In the case of Birmingham City, that noise could make a real difference once the club move into their new 62,000-capacity stadium, which Birmingham are hoping will be open by 2030.

That home advantage, and the role that fans play in it, is no small part of the reason why clubs want their grounds full for every match. Of course, it helps that it also helps with finances and the support that fans offer their own players also makes a difference.

But putting the fear of God into opposing players also has a role to play, as clubs seek to maximise every gain they can muster in order to claim the precious points required for them to progress through the divisions.