Away Match Thread 02/05/2026: Millwall v Oxford United

[Northstandboy]

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

26 wins in 99 league and cup matches since 2024.

We won 27 matches (all comps) in 2023-24 alone.

It’ll be nice just to experience winning more matches than one in every four for a change.

Don't get it.

For me, every Championship win was worth about three at the level below.

I don't support Oxford United for the entertainment of being flat-track bullies.

I support Oxford United to be as high up the pyramid as possible - even if it means fewer wins.

 

[Rach]

Don't get it.

For me, every Championship win was worth about three at the level below.

I don't support Oxford United for the entertainment of being flat-track bullies.

I support Oxford United to be as high up the pyramid as possible - even if it means fewer wins.

I think you need to understand that different people support the club for different reasons, and that that's perfectly OK.

I support Oxford United, not whoever they are playing against. So I really couldn't care less who the opposition are going to be each week - I back my team no matter what. I'd like to watch them play entertaining football, and win as much as possible, obviously. I don't really want to watch them being ground into the mud week after week by some team that I don't support.

You're different, and that's fine. It doesn't make you any "better" a supporter than those who just want to support the team whatever, though.

 

[holdsteady]

Don't get it.

For me, every Championship win was worth about three at the level below.

I don't support Oxford United for the entertainment of being flat-track bullies.

I support Oxford United to be as high up the pyramid as possible - even if it means fewer wins.

But we didn’t get enough wins to be that high up the pyramid.

As much as I wanted to stay up we were not good enough, after 46 games you can’t argue against that, so I will just have to look forward to next season in league one.

Flat track bullies in league one with our crowds, ground situation and history? We win that league we have had one of our better seasons, it’s a feat we have only managed once.

Not that I think we will walk the league, it’s going to be a fight like it is every time we are in it.

 

[FatOldSun]

The blueprint for next season must surely be the way we played against Sheffield Wednesday. Their manager even admitted he was surprised at how much we passed it instead of hoofing it. We're the only team to have thrashed them in recent weeks. I'm just hopeful that given we'll be playing teams nowhere near top of Championship level, that will be our default style of play.

For me, finding a replacement for Lankshear is the first priority. We know Harris can score goals at L1 level but not consistently. After that, midfield. The defence and keeper are the least of my worries.

 

[werthersoriginal]

The blueprint for next season must surely be the way we played against Sheffield Wednesday. Their manager even admitted he was surprised at how much we passed it instead of hoofing it. We're the only team to have thrashed them in recent weeks. I'm just hopeful that given we'll be playing teams nowhere near top of Championship level, that will be our default style of play.

For me, finding a replacement for Lankshear is the first priority. We know Harris can score goals at L1 level but not consistently. After that, midfield. The defence and keeper are the least of my worries.

Yes, we need to make sure we have a midfield that can pass and move dangerously. But some posters have also made a good case for having at least one defender who can bring the ball out of defence calmly - we don’t really have that at the moment.

 

[Symp59]

We know the championship is tough we weren't equipped for it enough. The defence could hold its own in a club further up the league ,but the midfield and attack have been so poor. If we hadn't got the defence we would have been down by Xmas. Not to have a no10 for 2 years is baffling ,we know Lanks has been awesome but to be backed up by ,Prelec ,Romeny and Harris what do our recruitment watch .

 

[TailsWeWin]

Much like the players performance, I simply couldn’t be bothered to post yesterday.

What a cracking day out, apart from the football.

We were second to everything, to a point that can be forgiven, as clearly there was far more on the game for Millwall than for us. It’s natural. That said, we were feeble.

All this talk from inside the club about how much the team ‘care’ and our demise is not for a lack of trying. Well blow me down with a feather, if yesterday is what trying looks like! Emakhu might as well of worn a blue shirt and Donley, well don’t even get me started on him. £4,000,000 but out? Jesus wept I’d not pay £400,000!

Changes need to happen, more than the budget will probably allow. But as a starter we need starting 11 replacements for the following come August:

Ball playing CB
Midfielder in the mould of Konak
Left winger
‘10’
CF

We have rolled over on far too many occasions away from home without really hurting the home teams. Should it be Bloomfield that takes us forward, he needs to find a way of us going from plucky underdogs to front foot enforces in games.

I’m not having Bloomfield at all. He had an opportunity yesterday to really throw down a marker and show the 2000+ travelling supporters what we can expect next year. He didn’t. It was more of the same that has culminated in a feeble end to the season.

If someone can tell me what our identity is on the pitch, I’d be grateful. Despite travelling up and down the country every week to support him and the team, I’m yet to see what the plan is under MB.
I understand that he may get the window and the first half of next season, but it’s a risk. His record suggests that it’s a risk, too. He’s becoming quite the specialist in ultimate failures.

4 go down from league 1. If he’s the gaffer, the first objective should be 50 points.

Absolutely this.

 

[Tobytrotters]

£Lack of effort is mostly apparent defensively (no pressing, weak challenges, retreating into a low block) but I believe it's just as much a problem in possession.

We play so passively and refuse to take any risks, which inevitably leads to ball being passed back to Cumming to kick off the pitch. It's not your chest thumping lack of effort but leads from the same mindset - do the bare minimum.

We know the championship is tough we weren't equipped for it enough. The defence could hold its own in a club further up the league ,but the midfield and attack have been so poor. If we hadn't got the defence we would have been down by Xmas. Not to have a no10 for 2 years is baffling ,we know Lanks has been awesome but to be backed up by ,Prelec ,Romeny and Harris what do our recruitment watch .

“The defence could hold its own in a club further up the league” what have you been watching! Delusional at best. That defence isn’t good enough for League 1. Millwall second goal…….Brown (yet again) no bloody words, and as for Long when he came on. An absolute shambles. Same manager, same coaches and same recruitment will equal same results, only in League 1. But I’m just a Troll who should jog on!

 

[Scotchegg]

But I’m just a Troll who should jog on!

Penny finally dropped!

 

[holdsteady]

“The defence could hold its own in a club further up the league” what have you been watching! Delusional at best. That defence isn’t good enough for League 1. Millwall second goal…….Brown (yet again) no bloody words, and as for Long when he came on. An absolute shambles. Same manager, same coaches and same recruitment will equal same results, only in League 1. But I’m just a Troll who should jog on!

Didn’t Brown and Long play in league one? In a promotion winning team?

 

[Tobytrotters]

Penny finally dropped!

The disingenuous way you shut down any debate that doesn’t suit your opinion and tell people to go away—says a lot about you.

 

[Tobytrotters]

Didn’t Brown and Long play in league one? In a promotion winning team?

So did Bobby McDonald & Gary Briggs, perhaps we should see if they are available next season.

 

[holdsteady]

So did Bobby McDonald & Gary Briggs, perhaps we should see if they are available next season.

Yeah because they are a similar age profile.

 

[Scotchegg]

The disingenuous way you shut down any debate that doesn’t suit your opinion and tell people to go away—says a lot about you.

Never anything disingenuous in anything I posted and stand by every word of it.

You have been posting since the end of Robinson's reign and haven't made a single positive post. Not one.

Either you are a troll or you're someone who is unable to take any pleasure from supporting our club (including staying up with Manning, promotion with Des or staying up with Rowett).

You're of course entitled to your opinions, but equally I'm entitled to think that they're all a little sad and pathetic.

 

[MarkG]

some takeaways from this thread:-

• where's the player's poll gone? Not that i like it clogging up the thread even with 'collapse poll'
• it was season over last week when we were already relegated
• we were playing a team in third place fighting for auto, as one already relegated so to expect some match winning performance is absurd.
• took me a while to realise the claims of Ipswich fans in the away end , was actually just Oxford fans knowing scores. It's modern football, signal allowing, we can know the live scores. we like a bit of banter.

 

[Tobytrotters]

Never anything disingenuous in anything I posted and stand by every word of it.

You have been posting since the end of Robinson's reign and haven't made a single positive post. Not one.

Either you are a troll or you're someone who is unable to take any pleasure from supporting our club (including staying up with Manning, promotion with Des or staying up with Rowett).

You're of course entitled to your opinions, but equally I'm entitled to think that they're all a

Never anything disingenuous in anything I posted and stand by every word of it.

You have been posting since the end of Robinson's reign and haven't made a single positive post. Not one.

Either you are a troll or you're someone who is unable to take any pleasure from supporting our club (including staying up with Manning, promotion with Des or staying up with Rowett).

You're of course entitled to your opinions, but equally I'm entitled to think that they're all a little sad and pathetic.

And there you go again. Just because someone refuses to accept mediocrity, you shut down any real debate with insults. You’ll probably be in your happy-clappy element next season. Maybe go all in and get yourself a red ‘Make Oxford Great Again’ cap—seems to suit you perfectly.

 

[MarkG]

Oh and the “promoted too early”
We were eight years in league one so no idea what the ideal year to be promoted was.

Were we supposed to have a championship team ready in waiting whilst in league one? All while sticking with the SCMP rules. ?

 

[greatunclekip]

Oh and the “promoted too early”
We were eight years in league one so no idea what the ideal year to be promoted was.

Were we supposed to have a championship team ready in waiting whilst in league one? All while sticking with the SCMP rules. ?

Thank goodness for this post. I’ve been thoroughly depressed by the amount of people letting incredibly highly paid execs off the hook for reasons like this. We had an opportunity that 20 clubs in that league would kill for, and we utterly blew it and treated it as a bit of fun.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

 

[NorthWestOx]

Flat track bullies in league one with our crowds, ground situation and history? We win that league we have had one of our better seasons, it’s a feat we have only managed once.

Ahem! Twice!
1968 and 1984.
Plus 2nd in 1996.

 

[holdsteady]

Ahem! Twice!
1968 and 1984.
Plus 2nd in 1996.

I remember the 84 one just about, actually had Steve Hardwick pick me up holding the trophy at a juniors day at the Manor after, still got the photo, remember the 96 second place, although that’s not winning it, but 68 was 10 years before I was born, knew we had been promoted from the division in the 60s but not that we were champions.

Although I think it doesn’t take away from my point that a league we have only won twice despite spending most of our history at that level or below is hardly flat track bullying, you could say that about the conference maybe (not that we managed to win the bloody thing), be pushing it about league two but not league one, it’s probably our natural level for the moment.

 

[Mojofilter]

Don't get it.

For me, every Championship win was worth about three at the level below.

I don't support Oxford United for the entertainment of being flat-track bullies.

I support Oxford United to be as high up the pyramid as possible - even if it means fewer wins.

Why?

What does being higher up the pyramid get you? I've enjoyed the championship, obviously, but largely it's about the novelty of the new teams, the harder challenge etc. rather than because we are higher than we have been in decades.

 

[Golden Dr Otto]

I think you need to understand that different people support the club for different reasons, and that that's perfectly OK.

I support Oxford United, not whoever they are playing against. So I really couldn't care less who the opposition are going to be each week - I back my team no matter what. I'd like to watch them play entertaining football, and win as much as possible, obviously. I don't really want to watch them being ground into the mud week after week by some team that I don't support.

You're different, and that's fine. It doesn't make you any "better" a supporter than those who just want to support the team whatever, though.

Disagree a little. I really don’t want to ever watch us lose 5-0 to Histon again, and equally. I don’t want to watch us beat them in a league game again, it’s completely empty as a reward.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Disagree a little. I really don’t want to ever watch us lose 5-0 to Histon again, and equally. I don’t want to watch us beat them in a league game again, it’s completely empty as a reward.

In the context of the time a narrow win against a rival in the Conference felt massive. I remember wins against Crawley and Luton that were as exciting as anything in league one for sure. Beating Histon 5-0 would have been thrilling if they were fighting us for the top spot- you wouldn’t stand back and say Oh it’s only the Conference.

 

[carefreeoufc]

Just got back.

Not exactly the result/performance I had hoped to see, nor the team selection (though George Elek makes some good points on the latest Dub episode). I thought first half we broadly managed to weather a bit of a storm initially, before the inevitable happened and we conceded. Second half, the goal just after half time really did see us off. Atmosphere a bit of a strange one, particularly after the news spread around the ground that Ipswich were 2-0 up. Arguably the atmosphere and on pitch performance mirrored one another to some extent. A handful of glimmers of hope sandwiched between bad decision making and stupid errors.

Great day out mind you. Started in Hamilton Hall where there were a few QPR fans off to Ipswich, plus a large contingent of rugby fans for Army v Navy. Well priced Spitfire (I think??) lager in the ground, back to London Bridge to a few, where we had a good chat with some Millwall fans, finally heading more central for a few Guinness at the Toucan before the train home.

Decent away day in a sunny London barring the result.

 

[NorthWestOx]

Just got back.

It is a long walk tbf.

 

[Carpy]

I agree with @Steve Gilbert on this one, this is a match thread, there are plenty of opportunities to discuss politics on this forum, match threads are not the place for it.

Political posts removed.

 

[Uptheox]

I agree with @Steve Gilbert on this one, this is a match thread, there are plenty of opportunities to discuss politics on this forum, match threads are not the place for it.

Political posts removed.

I don’t know why @Steve Gilbert allows political threads at all on this forum. There at plenty of other spaces to discuss politics. It’s a know far righttactic to infiltrate forums like these. My complaint was that a*rsehole boy trolls at the Millwall game were copying the home fans’ chant about Keir Starmer. Ironically, this now seems to have been removed by the same @Steve Gilbert for being too political when my sole purpose was to keep politics out of OUFC. Ho hum.

 

[Carpy]

I don’t know why @Steve Gilbert allows political threads at all ok this forum. There at plenty of other spaces to discuss politics. It’s a know fee fight tactic to infiltrate forums like these. My complaint was that a*rsehole boy trolls at the Millwall game were copying the home fans’ chant about Keir Starmer. Ironically, this now seems to have been removed by the same @Steve Gilbert for being too political when my sole purpose was to keep politics out of OUFC. Ho hum.

Hate to break it to you but @Steve Gilbert doesn't allow or not anything on the forum, nor does he take away posts. I did.

Some will dislike it, others will love it. But the reality is many don't care for politics, and these politically angled threads can be stuck on ignore by people who have no interest in it, if people want to discuss the pros and cons of political chants in football, create a thread, it really is that simple folks.

 

[Kernow Yellow]

I don’t know why @Steve Gilbert allows political threads at all ok this forum. There at plenty of other spaces to discuss politics. It’s a know fee fight tactic to infiltrate forums like these. My complaint was that a*rsehole boy trolls at the Millwall game were copying the home fans’ chant about Keir Starmer. Ironically, this now seems to have been removed by the same @Steve Gilbert for being too political when my sole purpose was to keep politics out of OUFC. Ho hum.

I don't think Steve has removed them or asked for them to be removed. A moderator has taken that upon themself. I have questioned it but it's not getting reinstated apparently.