Monday night at London Stadium marked a pretty dark day in West Ham’s modern history.

Hammers fans, disgruntled by David Sullivan and Karren Brady’s running of the club, staged a boycott of Nuno Espirito Santo’s first home game in charge against Brentford. A series of broken promises, poor recruitment and the overall mismanagement of a big London club rightly has them demanding a change at board level.

The move to London Stadium from Upton Park is at the very top of the list of things fans are angry about. Supporters were not consulted about the move and were then promised “a world-class stadium for a world-class team”.

Nine and a half years later, West Ham are 19th in the Premier League and there is absolutely nothing about the club or the stadium that can be described as “world class”.

The arena is not what was promised and it shows, with the lower tier resting on scaffolding while fans struggle to grow any kind of affection for a home which, three seasons in Europe and Conference League title aside, has mostly hosted relegation-threatened seasons.

As a result, fans were well within their rights to voice their anger at the direction in which the club is heading by simply not turning up on Monday. Early estimates suggest London Stadium was about 60% full, despite an air of optimism surrounding Nuno’s start to his tenure.

Fans still spoke with their feet regardless of their hopes of seeing a first home win since February.

A 2-0 loss, a flat atmosphere and boos at the full-time whistle only compounded the club’s woes as it desperately tried to flog cheap tickets and fill the lower tiers (to avoid so many empty seats being on display in front of Sky’s cameras) before a ball had been kicked.

Now, relegation is a real and serious concern. There is so much wrong with the club and the board is to blame for much of that – they are overseeing the death of a once great club.

Until things change at the top, fans will continue to find ways to protest.