Millwall’s Lee Gregory and Oxford’s Benjamin Büchel in action: Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern Area Final First Leg – The New Den – 14/01/16 Credit: Action Images / Matthew Childs Livepic

For the last time for at least 15 months, we preview an Oxford United Championship fixture as we visit Millwall for the final game of the 2025/26 season.

With relegation already confirmed for the U’s, the only jeopardy attached to this game is for the home team, who need a win to have any hope of automatic promotion to the Premier League (unless Ipswich Town lose their final game at home to QPR 18-0, in which case a draw would see the Lions promoted).

United have played at Millwall 27 times, including the first meeting, in the FA Cup second round in December 1953, when the sides drew 3-3 at the Den (Southern League Headington won the replay 1-0, the first time the club had beaten a Football League side). Oxford have lost seven and won 12 of their games there.

The first league meeting in South Bermondsey came in a Fourth Division game in January 1965, when the teams drew 2-2. Defeats for Oxford followed in November 1965 (now in the Third Division) and August 1968 (in the Second Division) before a goalless draw in January 1970. The U’s secured their first victory at Millwall, beating them 2-1 in the first game of the 1970/71 season.

United failed to win any of their next six games in SE16, although they did secure a couple of goalless draws. Their next win came in September 1981 in the Third Division, with the sides meeting again a week later in the League Cup, when a 3-3 draw was the order of the day.

Two-one defeats followed in October 1982 and February 1984 (United’s promotion season), with the sides not meeting again until November 1990 in the second tier, when Oxford ran out 2-1 winners [Watch HERE]. There were further defeats for the U’s four months apart, at the end of the 1991/92 season and the start of the 1992/93 campaign [Watch HERE].

Oxford’s first game at the New Den was in November 1993, when the sides fought out a 2-2 draw [Watch HERE] and they followed this up in January 1996 with a 3-3 draw in the first round of the FA Cup [Watch HERE] (at this point, all the cup games between the two sides in London had ended 3-3).

The last game of the 1999/2000 season ended in a 1-0 win for Millwall [Watch HERE], and in September 2000 the home side crushed the Yellows 5-0 [Watch HERE]. However, the last four meetings at the Den have all ended in Oxford victories.

In August 2003, Steve Basham scored the only goal as Oxford knocked Millwall out of the League Cup [Watch some fairly ropey coverage HERE] and in January 2016 Kemar Roofe was the hero as his two goals gave the U’s victory in the first leg of the area final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy [Watch HERE]. In both cases, Millwall were at least a division above United.

The sides met in League One in April 2017, when Conor McAleny scored two spectacular goals in a 3-0 victory [Watch HERE]. Last season, the sides met at the Den on New Year’s Day, when Rúben Rodrigues’s goal earned United their first away win in the Championship since beating Sheffield United in March 1999 [Watch HERE].

You can see the results from all the games between Oxford and Millwall HERE.

On this Date

United have won four of the 11 games they have played on 2nd May, including the first two and the last two matches.

In the Southern League in 1953, Headington beat Hastings United 2-0. Twenty years later, Oxford played Como in the Anglo-Italian Trophy and ran out 1-0 winners.

United had away games on this date in three consecutive years between 1979 and 1981, losing the first two before drawing 1-1 at Burnley. Oxford lost 2-1 at home to Reading in 1983, drawing 0-0 with Wigan the following year.

The U’s then lost at home to Norwich City in the top flight in 1987 and to Manchester United, also in Division One, in 1988.

In 1992, Oxford had to beat Tranmere Rovers to have any chance of avoiding relegation to the third tier, and still need a combination of results elsewhere to ensure Second Division safety. Goals from John Durnin and Joey Beauchamp, plus an extraordinary goalkeeping performance from Paul Kee, ensured the U’s won 2-1, while all the other scorelines aligned to earn United a reprieve [Watch HERE].

United’s most recent game on 2nd May was in 2015, when they traveled to Newport County for the season’s finale and won 1-0, courtesy of Roofe yet again [Watch HERE].

You can see all Oxford’s past results from 2nd May HERE.

The Game

As games go, this one should be fairly relaxing for the traveling U’s fans. Less so for the home faithful, with Millwall still having an outside chance of automatic promotion (Middlesbrough are also in the mix and if they win at Wrexham, Ipswich lose, and Millwall fail to win, they will jump into second place). I obviously don’t want Oxford to lose, but if doing so means that the Lions go up instead of Ipswich or Middlesbrough, I won’t be too upset.

With the pressure off, will Matt Bloomfield make any changes to his starting line-up? The honest thing to do would be to field the strongest side possible, both for the integrity of the competition and to go for the win to give the traveling fans bang for their buck. However, I expect some changes from the side that smashed Sheffield Wednesday 4-1 last Saturday.

For one thing, skipper Cameron Brannagan limped off midway through the first half and I’d be surprised if he was fit enough to play. He was replaced by Myles Peart-Harris, but is he likely to get game time if he’s not in the club’s plans for next season; his contract is up in June and there have been no indications whether he’ll earn a new one or not.#10

Likewise, will any of the loan signings be involved if they’re unlikely to be at the club next season? This would mean no Yunus Konak, no Jamie Donley, and – most controversially – no Will Lankshear. Lanks is the side’s leading scorer with 11 league goals and has already been valued by Tottenham as being worth in the region of £15 million: way out of Oxford’s reach. He will return to White Hart Lane at the end of the season with the best wishes of all Yellows fans, who will doubtless follow his career with interest.

Last Saturday, Will Vaulks started with Konak on the bench, while Donley also started; if neither he nor Konak (nor Peart-Harris) are involved, it is possible that Mark Harris or Ole Romeny will get the #10 role, while I would suspect that Jamie McDonnell, who didn’t feature at all against the Owls, might be Brannagan’s replacement.

If there’s no Lankshear, it really only leaves Mark Harris for that lone striker position, unless Nik Prelec has recovered from whatever injury has kept him out of the squad recently.

Out wide, I’d be astonished not to see Stan Mills starting on the right, while on the left it would seem to be a straight choice between Aidomo Emakhu, the former Millwall winger who has come on in leaps and bounds recently, or South Korea international Jeon Jin-Woo. An interesting dilemma for Bloomfield. It’s highly unlikely that Przsemysłav Płacheta will be involved, with strong rumours linking him to a move to MLS side Austin FC.

At the back, assuming Jack Currie won’t be risked we expect Brodie Spencer to continue at left-back. Ruben Roosken is an option, but given his unconvincing performance last time he played there, getting hooked at half-time against Hull, I’d be surprised if he’s selected. This means a straight choice between Sam Long and Hidde ter Avest at right back. Long has been a model of consistency over the past two Championship seasons, while the Dutchman has had a couple of lengthy injury spells. However, he started on Saturday and had a fine game, so that’s another interesting poser for the head coach.

Ciaron Brown is almost certain to get the nod ahead of the recently invisible Ben Davies as the left-sided central defender, while Michał Helik has performed admirably since winning his place back in the side following Christ Makosso’s indiscipline. It would be interesting to see if Makosso is involved, as that would be a potential indicator that United are prepared to meet his £4 million signing fee from Luton Town. I suspect that they’re not.

That just leaves the goalkeeping position, which has seen Jamie Cumming involved in every league game this season, with Matt Ingram just seeing action in the cups. However, in the final game of last season – that exciting 3-3 draw at Swansea – Ingram was given his chance ahead of Cumming. That, though, was under Gary Rowett, and Bloomfield may well have other ideas.

As for Millwall, who knows? Who even cares (unless you’re a ‘Wall fan, I guess)? Although it would be nice to see former academy keeper Max Crocombe again. I’m sure he owes me a coffee…

UTFO

Games without a penalty (for old-time’s sake): five