United visit the New Den tomorrow evening to take on First Division Millwall in the first round of the newly named Carling Cup, aka the Milk Cup, of course. Full of confidence from Saturday’s win at Lincoln, Ian Atkins was relieved that United came through with no new injury worries, and he is likely to name an unchanged side.

On the other hand Atkins may decide to rest some players prior to next Saturday’s crunch game at home to Hull City, and he may hand a debut to Mark Rawle, and possibly bring Dean Whitehead into the team. Millwall will be without Paul Ifill and one or two others that no-one has heard of, but should provide a difficult test after they beat Wigan 2-0 at the weekend.

Millwall have beaten United in each of the teams’ last four meetings, and the Us have only won two of the last fourteen games between the two sides. The clubs have met once before in the first round of the League Cup, back in 1965, with the Lions winning 1-0 at the Manor. However, a good omen is that on the five previous times that Oxford have played on August 12th they have only lost once, and they have won both their League Cup ties on that date. All of which leads us to predict a 2-0 home win, unfortunately.