It’s time for the next chapter of my Millwall story – and for once, things are actually going quite well for us!
In Part 7, we kicked off the 2025/2026 season by bringing in several new signings, which have breathed new life into our promotion hopes. We sit in 4th place in the Championship table after 10 games, with the fans and the board now starting to believe that we can finally make it into the play-offs!
Can we carry this good form through the autumn months and into the new year? Read on to find out…
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 2025: KELLY LOSES HIS EYE
At the end of the previous chapter, our number 1 goalkeeper Liam Kelly came in demanding a new contract. I’d already refused to offer new deals to Joe Bryan and Aidomo Emakhu, and I certainly wasn’t going to back down to Kelly here. Not after he’d started the season with a 76% save ratio – way down on his expected save ratio of 85%.
And certainly not after he leaked THREE goals to Preston with an xGA of 1.31! Defeat at Deepdale saw us drop out of the Championship play-off places – and Kelly was dropped from the starting line-up.
Matija Šarkić went in goal for the next two months, starting with a disappointing late collapse against a Brighton team that was far too strong for the Championship. Even though Matija found clean sheets hard to come by, he was still more reliable than Liam, helping us to seven points from our next four games.
Then came a truly crazy match against Wayne Rooney’s Southampton™. Šarkić’s shaky backline gave the Saints many, MANY scoring chances, but the Montenegrin played out of his skin to keep the scoreline down to 1-1… until our former loanee Tony Springett banged the ball home to win the game with his first Southampton goal. But wait – Springett was offside!
And four minutes later, Kieran Dowell – the winger that I signed instead of Springett in August – tapped in a low cross from Emakhu to win the game with his first Millwall goal! From agony to ecstasy in a matter of moments!
Of course, we followed our most spirited performance with a tepid defeat to bottom side Charlton, and an equally dire stalemate against Swansea. At least we did keep a clean sheet against the Swans – our first for two months.
We had bounced in and out of the top six throughout the autumn, but now we found ourselves just outside on goal difference. What we really needed was a return to consistency – and another strong December.
DECEMBER 2025: BUILDING A FIREWALL
And we couldn’t have wished for much better than this. Five clean sheets in a row – and four wins on the bounce!
Though we were struggling a fair bit with injuries – having lost players such as right-back Fin Stevens, midfielder Andreas Müller and forward Jesurun Rak-Sakyi for several weeks – it didn’t matter. Captain Jake Cooper was magnificent at both ends of the pitch, heading in four corners in just two matches to make promotees Blackpool and Oxford look like amateurs!
A late screamer from loanee midfielder Isak Hansen-Aarøen continued the winning run against Blackburn – briefly lifting us into 3rd place with a seven-point gap on 7th. Šarkić was now in the form of his career, while Kelly was burning a hole on our bench. He wasn’t thrilled, to say the least.
Šarkić’s hot streak finally ended at Pride Park, against promotion rivals Derby. We probably should have lost that match 4-0 or 5-0, but the fact we kept it down to 1-0 was more down to some sheepish Rams finishing than any Lion-hearted defending.
Kelly came back into the fold after Christmas, but the Scot didn’t exactly shine as we needed to come behind to salvage draws against Watford and Fulham. Cooper’s FIFTH corner goal in three weeks confirmed him as the Championship Player of the Month.
Though we remained in the play-off spots at the end of the year, that seven-point cushion had been whittled down to five points (or just two if Sunderland won their game in hand). There was still plenty of room for improvement if we were to consolidate our place in that all-important top six.
For one thing, you might have noticed that our centre-forwards had only scored two goals in three months. While Tom Bradshaw‘s shooting was still pretty clinical, he wasn’t doing enough work to set up promising chances for himself or his team-mates. Chris Wood was slightly better in that respect, but the big New Zealander couldn’t finish a sentence if his life depended
I decided that I would try out Mika Biereth as an advanced forward. Biereth was fairly quick and clinical, though the Danish striker hadn’t found the net since scoring four times in August. Failing that, I would try out the rapid Simon Adingra – the on-loan Brighton youngster who had blown hot and cold on the left wing.
Then again, I could always go back to the 4-4-2. A high-pressing front two might help to put the opposition defence under a bit more pressure, especially when we’re away from home.
JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW
My aim for the January transfer window was to add some more creativity and flair to our midfield. We didn’t have a lot of transfer budget to play with… but that didn’t matter, as we managed to bring in former Spain Under-21s playmaker Roberto López on a free transfer.
With his impressive flair, technique and passing ability, López had been firmly on my radar since his release by Real Sociedad in the summer. Roberto missed the first half of the season with an ACL injury, so I’m taking it gently integrating him into the team. Once he settles down and sharpens up, though, he can be a great asset either in midfield or perhaps on the wing.
I then brought in one more defender on deadline day – bringing in Rhys Williams for £325,000 from Liverpool. He’s a big, tall man (which I love) who’s fairly determined (which I also love) and he apparently enjoys big matches (we’ll see).
I also had my sights on signing another defensive midfielder, especially after we reluctantly said goodbye to one of this season’s unsung heroes.
Once Freiburg came in with a big offer for Müller, the midfielder made it clear that we wanted to return to Germany. I agreed to let Andreas leave if Freiburg offered us £6million – 10 times what we paid for him a season-and-a-half ago. We eventually got Freiburg to pay us £8million, potentially rising to £9million.
After a difficult first season in south London, Müller had thrived upon finding his role as a midfield runner – 4 goals and 4 goal contributions in 21 league games. While I didn’t really want to let him leave so soon, the prospect of a huge profit softened the blow. Auf wiedersehen, Andi.
Backup defender Alex Mitchell also moved on, joining League One side Fleetwood on loan for the final few months of his contract. After making three assists in 10 substitute appearances this season, our promising 18-year-old winger Marvin Procter was rewarded with an extended run of first-team football – on loan at Gillingham in League Two.
JANUARY 2026: UP FOR THE CUP
Okay, this is getting pretty silly now. After his devastating December, Cooper netted another FOUR corner goals in January – taking his season tally up to 12! He is now three ahead of our next-top scorer Biereth, who enjoyed a return to form.
Biereth and Cooper got two goals apiece in the FA Cup, where we overcame our Round 3 hoodoo against Watford, before winning a pulsating Round 4 clash with Stoke. It was in this match that Wood finally scored his first goal back in a Millwall jersey.
Eventually.
After racing into a 3-0 lead, we weathered a monumental storm of Stoke attacks and were pegged back to 3-2. It took an 85th-minute Cooper special to ultimately finish the Potters off.
Don’t expect us to go any further than Round 5, though. We’ve been drawn away to Liverpool – who are 3rd in the Premier League under the management of Unai Emery. I have a feeling that is NOT going to be a good evening for us.
In the league, we reinforced our Den fortress with a couple of strong wins over Preston and QPR, but our erratic away form continued with a Slim defeat to Fatboy’s Brighton and a tense draw at West Brom. Daryl Dike might not know what dishwasher tablets are for, but the Baggies striker sure knows how to find the net against us.
Meanwhile in the Liam Kelly saga, the grumpy Scottish shotstopper has returned to the fold, starting five of our last six league games. He’s actually done pretty well of late, and that bodes well as we head into the final third of the league campaign.
And we go into those final 16 matches clinging onto a top-six place, if only by a single point from Sunderland. The race to qualify for the Championship play-offs looks like it could well go to the wire.
Automatic promotion isn’t completely out of the question… but it’s a big ask. Leaders Stoke have the league’s top scorer – a certain Matías Arezo – while challengers Derby, Middlesbrough and Luton also possess attacking talents that we at Millwall can only dream of.
But then again, we’ve shown that we can go toe-to-toe with the toughest teams in the Championship and survive a lot of stormy weather. Our opposition shot conversion rate is the lowest in the league (10%), while our defenders are among some of the best when it comes to winning headers and tackles.
Coops’ statistics are quite astonishing, as you’d expect. As well as single-handedly making Millwall the most potent team on attacking corners, he’s in at least the league’s top five or six when it comes to Average Rating, Headers Won, Key Headers Won, Shots Blocked, Key Tackles Won, Most Tackles Per 90 Minutes…
No, wait… that last one was actually Adingra. Because of course it was.
Regardless, we must now believe that this can be our year. Team cohesion is Good, club atmosphere is Very Good, home form is excellent, the defence is solid, and even Kelly is looking reliable in goal again. With three months to go until the final reckoning, what could possibly go wrong?
To be continued…
I’ll be back later this week with the big all-or-nothing season finale. Can my Millwall team secure promotion to the Premier League at the third time of asking… or will yet another Fuller FM series end in spectacular failure?
Fuller FM 
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