Oxford United boss hails ‘powerful’ Millwall in promotion race

Despite having relegation confirmed and therefore nothing riding on The U’s final Championship fixture of the season, Oxford are aiming to finish the campaign on high whilst up against a Lions team who are hoping to secure automatic promotion on the final day.

Millwall are one point behind second-placed Ipswich Town and will need to beat The Yellows as well as hope their rivals drop points if they are to secure promotion straight to the Premier League.

Oxford defeated Sheffield Wednesday 4-1 in their final home game of the season last weekend thanks to two goals from Tottenham Hotspur loanee Will Lankshear and individual strikes from Will Vaulks and Myles Peart-Harris.

“We wanted to finish strongly,” Bloomfield declared.

“We have to focus on the weekend because we want to put in another performance. I’ve spoken about it before.

“We wanted to finish the season strongly irrespective of the results on Saturday lunchtime.

Przemyslaw Placheta celebrates his late equaliser in Oxford United’s draw with Millwall earlier in the season (Image: Mike Allen)

“We’re up against a really powerful team who have had an unbelievable season.

“Alex Neil has done a fantastic job at Millwall and they’re a fantastic team…[we are] in for a really tough game. But from my side, we have to prepare to be the best we can possibly be.

“We know there’s a situation at the top of the league where everyone’s going to be fighting for points and promotion and our professional integrity says we have to make sure that we’re ready for what we need to be.

“The main thing I’m looking for is character and attitude.

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(Image: Jason Dawson)

“For us to move forward as a group and as a football club, we have to take the best characters and the best attitudes with us.

“If you’re successful at anything in life, it’s because you’re surrounding yourself with hard work and alignment. And it doesn’t matter what industry you’re involved in, whether it’s football or whether you’re involved in anything else, it’s about alignment and hard work towards a goal.

(Image: Jason Dawson)

“So for Saturday, I’m looking for attitude, I’m looking for character, I’m looking for all of those things to go into a performance.”

With Saturday’s result ultimately meaningless for The U’s, there is a possibility that some rotation could be seen at The Den.

Bloomfield, however, remained tight-lipped on the chance of changes in East London.

“I want to be the best we can be on Saturday. That has to be my focus and I will pick the team that I believe is best to play in the way that we need to play on Saturday.”