Oh well. All the best south London parties last three minutes. Everyone knows that.
Bermondsey had been a spring-like place at kick-off, soft May sunlight dappling the magnificent municipal incinerator tower at the Cold Blow Lane end. The Den was sold out, as it always is these days.
And the job for Millwall was clear enough. The playoff spot was guaranteed. You’re going home with that. But a better result at home to Oxford than Ipswich at home to QPR would mean Millwall could gain promotion to the Premier League before the day was out, to the top tier for the first time in 36 years, and basically get to paint south London blue for the next three months.
The ground was up before kick-off, the air crackling with that very distinct electricity. The usual playlist echoed around the corrugated stands. Let ’em come. No one likes us. Your dad’s a nonce. We fear no foe – except, it turns out, for news of an Ipswich goal after three minutes against a QPR team already playing in sliders and pieces of snorkel equipment.
Head coach Sergej Jakirovic reflected upon an “unbelievable” achievement after his Hull side earned a spot in the playoffs with a 2-1 comeback win at home to Norwich. Goals in either half from Oli McBurnie saw the Tigers nudge clear of Wrexham and Derby to land a place in the top six.
Jakirovic, who has had to operate all season under a transfer embargo, said: “It’s a big success. To achieve this is my first season at the club is unbelievable, it’s massive for me and club – especially in these circumstances. This is a sweet feeling.”
At the other end of the table Sheffield Wednesday claimed their first Championship home win of the season in front of their new owner, David Storch, as they beat West Brom 2-1 to finally wipe out their 18-point deduction. Arise Capital Partners, which is led by Storch, has completed the acquisition of the Owls and the American was on the pitch before kick-off to address the fans of his new club. He confirmed that the Owls would be starting life in League One without a points deduction, much to the delight of the sold-out home crowd.
Southampton made it 19 Championship matches without defeat as they finished the season fourth with a 3-1 win against Preston at Deepdale. Taylor Harwood-Bellis’s superb 12th-minute header opened the scoring and Ross Stewart doubled the lead with a well-taken second after 47 minutes. Lewis Dobbin capitalised on a Daniel Peretz howler to halve the arrears on the hour, but substitute Cyle Larin tapped home to seal the win in stoppage time.
Stephy Mavididi gave League One-bound Leicester something to cheer about at the end of a miserable campaign as his late goal secured a 1-0 win at Blackburn. Afterwards, Gary Rowett made clear he wants to stay on as Leicester’s manager next season, saying: “I think there’s going to be some big decisions and it’s going to need someone, in my opinion, brave enough to make those decisions. The team needs to look very different. The culture needs to look very different. But it’s a great opportunity so of course I’d like that opportunity.”
An Ellis Simms hat-trick and a Viktor Torp piledriver ensured Coventry signed off on their Championship title-winning season in style with a one-sided 4-0 victory over a sorry Watford side at Vicarage Road. Cheered on by around 2,000 fans, Frank Lampard’s side ended a memorable season with 95 points and 97 goals. Afterwards, the manager told fans to “stay excited” about the summer plans for squad building: “The club has to do the hard work and the owner has said that he wants to talk about that from next week. It’s a special story this year and this is right up there in the amount of pleasure I have had in football.”
Adam Idah came off the bench to score twice as Swansea ended their season with a 3-1 win at home to Charlton.
Sheffield United staged a second half comeback to win 2-1 at Pride Park and end Derby Championship playoff hopes. Derby were in control at the break through Sam Szmodics early goal but the visitors came back strongly to dash the home side’s dream of a top-six finish. A mistake by Joe Ward allowed Tom Cannon to level before a strike from Sydie Peck turned the game on its head.
Adrian Segecic’s excellent end-of-season form continued as Portsmouth played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with Birmingham at Fratton Park.
Goals from Delano Burgzorg and substitute Sam Bell saw Roy Hodgson end his short spell as Bristol City interim head coach with a 2-0 victory over Stoke at Ashton Gate. Hodgson said later it could have been his last game as a manager – but didn’t rule anything out: “If someone says ‘we need you to do a job’ and I think I can then maybe, but it’s a long shot. I am certainly not going to be putting my name out there because there are lots of managers and coaches needing jobs. The game has been very kind to me and I don’t need the work anymore. It’s nice to go out on a win.”
The moment passed with just a flicker around the ground. The sun kept shining. The trains kept trundling past the empty corners of the stands. Alex Neil’s face appeared in Stalinist close up, a grimace on the big screen. This is the beauty of sport: 87 minutes still to run. Play on, play on. Smile when your heart is breaking.
With nine minutes gone it was 2-0 to the Tractor Boys, as instantly relayed by the Oxford fans in the away end, and the suspension of disbelief was finally banished for good. “You’re going down,” the Dockers stand replied. Before long we were into the anti-Keir Starmer repertoire and the day had begun to settle.
This was always a strangely pitched occasion. There is a giddiness to getting this close to an automatic spot, a sense of tantalising proximity to be managed. For the players, particularly at Millwall, which is almost exclusively EFL old hands, going up would be a career changer, a one-off shot.
Neil had been agreeably dour and low-fi in the buildup, with lots of stuff about nothing we can do about results elsewhere, and not spending the day listening to his transistor radio (classic, old school). Afterwards, with Millwall confirmed as third-place finishers, his only comment was “well, I’d have preferred second,” followed by praise for his team, and the freedom with which they have played under pressure in the last few weeks.
The real job here was simply to keep that train moving, the energy up, the vibe good. And Millwall did just that. Femi Azeez was brilliant, a man having fun in the sun, too much for the Oxford right side, and scorer of both goals in Millwall’s 2-0 win.
With 55 minutes gone Azeez even reeled off a blocked Rabona cross, and people laughed and shouted approval, rather than ripping up their season tickets in disgust. It’s all changed around here. You can buy artisan pickle on the Old Kent Road.
Stevenage snatched the final play-off spot in League One with a stoppage-time winner to beat Wigan as Exeter were relegated following another dramatic ending to the regular season.
With other results going against them, Boro had looked set to be edged out of sixth place before Dan Sweeney bundled the ball in from close range in added time to secure a crucial 1-0 victory.
Luton had been hoping to capitalise on any dropped points – and dug deep to come from behind and win 3-2 at Bolton with a stoppage-time goal from Shayden Morris, before Nahki Wells also saw his late penalty saved.
Plymouth were also in the hunt for gatecrashing the top six and fought back from going 2-0 down early on to win 3-2 at bottom club Northampton, who finished with 10 men, but their efforts also came up just short.
Bradford finished fourth after a 2-1 victory at Exeter. Kayden Jackson and Antoni Sarcevic were on target for the visitors as the Grecians’ relegation was confirmed, with Josh Magennis hitting a late consolation.
Stockport – who had missed the chance to clinch a playoff spot when they lost to relegated Port Vale on Tuesday night – won 3-1 at Barnsley to secure third place, while Leyton Orient made sure of their League One status with a 2-2 home draw against Burton.
Champions Lincoln signed off with a 2-0 win at Port Vale, with goals in each half from Ben House and Rob Street, to finish on 103 points, while promoted Cardiff ended their campaign with a 5-4 defeat at Mansfield. The Stags had been 3-0 up at half-time.
Relegated Rotherham ended a forgettable campaign with a 3-2 defeat at Wycombe after Micah Olabiyi struck a stoppage-time winner; Billy Sharp rolled back the years with a second-half hat-trick as Doncaster won 3-1 at Peterborough while Huddersfield were 4-0 winners at AFC Wimbledon and Blackpool won 1-0 at Reading.
Bromley secured the League Two title, with Cambridge also promoted, while Barrow and Harrogate were relegated. The Ravens bounced back from two defeats in their last three games to beat Walsall 3-1 as they celebrated moving up into the third tier for the first time with the championship trophy.
MK Dons had to settle for the runners-up spot after being held to a 1-1 draw at Fleetwood, while Newport came from behind to win 2-1 at Barrow with late goals from Thomas Davies and Bobby Kamwa, and Harrogate slipped to a 2-1 home defeat against Barnet.
Cambridge made sure of third place with a goalless draw at Crewe, where Ben Knight had missed a first-half penalty. A point was enough for the Us after Salford had to settle for a goalless draw at Crawley, who stayed up.
Tranmere, who had also been in the last-day relegation conundrum, battled to a 1-1 draw against Grimsby, who finished seventh and will face Salford in the play-offs. Chesterfield secured sixth as they won 2-1 at Swindon, in a head-to-head fight for the one place still up for grabs.
Notts County finished a point behind Salford in fifth after a 1-1 draw with Bristol Rovers. Gillingham hit a stoppage-time winner to beat Shrewsbury 1-0 while Colchester ran out 4-1 winners at Cheltenham and Oldham beat Accrington 3-0. PA Media
For a while early on it was probably good nothing was really riding on the result, as Millwall kept finding endless ways not to score, crosses fizzed across the six-yard box, shots wumped into the nearest desperate block.
Oxford were decked out in an eye-watering bright teal, the kind of colour your local bathroom supplier would call Spearmint Bidet. They hung on as Millwall ticked off a series of corners, Jake Cooper a reliably massive target, wheeled into place like a medieval siege tower for every set piece.
Barry Bannan was the best player on the pitch, always somehow ambling into the right spot. And on 33 minutes Millwall finally scored. It was a lovely goal from Azeez, a shift of feet and a shimmy, the ball spanked powerfully into the roof of the net. He made it 2-0 just after half-time, finishing nicely at the far post.
Either side, Millwall were as good as they could have hoped to be, in an empty game against demotivated and frankly not very good opponents. And from that point there was time to wonder about what next.
Something has shifted around the idea of Millwall going up. There was an assumption for a while that broadcasters and administrators Just Didn’t Want It, for whatever reason. They do now. It’s pretty clear. Millwall are on TV every other week. This is after all the content era: noise, heat, eyeballs. The product can, let’s face it, seem a little cold and processed at times.
Well, not around here. Name another Premier League club where a triumphant sunlit final day to a still-active season is going to end, as this one did, with a mass pitch invasion by local 10-year-old herberts, there to offer V-signs and fight intros to the 2,000 away fans, before being shouted off their own pitch by the rest of the home crowd.
So Millwall roll on to the playoffs in two weeks’ time. They will face Hull, who edged out Wrexham, thereby saving us all from the inevitable Hollywood plaything conspiracy theories. Who would the Premier League want on their screens, eh? Deadpool and the other bloke? Or Selhurst Timber and Building Merchants?
Southampton are probably the strongest team in the mix. But Millwall will fancy their chances of reaching Wembley, with a second leg against Hull back here at the Den; and a wider sense of pride at what is already the club’s best season in three decades.
