SATURDAY's visit by Millwall to the County Ground passed off peacefully thanks to well executed policing operation.

Additional officers from forces including Avon and Somerset and Devon and Cornwall joined their Wiltshire colleagues as they set about trying to ensure a repeat of the violent scenes that marred the clash between Oxford and Swindon fans did not occur.

Of course their task was made much easier by the fact that Millwall brought a much smaller travelling contingent.

Fans began to arrive by train from about 10am ahead of the early 1.30pm kick off.

They drank peacefully in the Great Western Hotel opposite the train station and at The Savoy on Regent Street.

After last month's Oxford match, and indeed another recent game against Bristol City, the police were criticised for failing to make use of the metal partition wall that they bring in on trailers to divide the County Ground car park.

On Saturday they made no such mistake.

Small groups of travelling supporters were loosely escorted along Manchester Road where, apart from some boisterous gesturing and the puffing out of chests as they passed the Tap and Barrel, there were no incidents.

The match looked like ending in a scoreless draw but a Swindon Town winner in added time saw the Millwall faithful leaving the ground in a somewhat less positive mood than when they arrived.

Despite this, they again moved between the ground and the station without causing any trouble for either the police or local fans.

Escorted in a much stricter containment formation after the match and led along County Road and towards Station Road by police vans and officers on horseback, the few hundred fans were taken back to the area around the station where they began to board trains heading back to the capital.

Wiltshire Police will be hoping that, providing Swindon avoid relegation, the next visit by the Lions from Bermondsey is as uneventful as this one.