Oxford United will treat Saturday's final Division 2 game at Millwall as seriously as if their lives depended on it, writes Jon Murray.
That was the pledge from U's manager Denis Smith, even though Cardiff City's defeat at Gillingham on Tuesday night means Oxford have stayed up.
Smith says he will not experiment by throwing in youngsters in Saturday's game at the New Den, despite what must be a strong temptation to look at players such as Rob Folland, Ben Abbey and Dean Whitehead.
"Other clubs will be looking to see what we are doing. Millwall need to win to stand a chance of getting into the play-offs and we've got to be fair to all the other clubs involved." Second division survival means Smith can now start planning ahead. And one of the first things he will be doing will be speaking to chairman Firoz Kassam to try to sort out his own future.
"In the end, fifth off the bottom is enough," he said as he reflected on Cardiff's relegation which guaranteed Oxford will finish in 20th position. "Next year we want to be fifth from top at the very least.
"We've got some good players at Oxford, what we've lacked has been confidence and a little bit of luck because we've been without Peter Fear and Joey Beauchamp for quite a few games."
Coach Mickey Lewis said: "I think we've deserved to stay up because we've got some decent players at Oxford and at least we play football. What we've got to try to get is a bit more steel." Stoke's 3-0 win over Bury last night means Millwall need to beat United to reach the play-offs, and they also must rely on either Stoke or Bristol Rovers slipping up in their final matches.
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