Here we go, this is it. It’s the season 3 finale – and potentially the final episode – of “Millwall Firewall”.
With three months to go in the 2025/2026 season, Millwall are right in the Championship play-off mix – and big Jake Cooper’s constant threat from set-pieces has made us a real force to be reckoned with. (Now might be a good time to catch up on the previous chapter if you haven’t already.)
Now we have 16 games left to consolidate a top-six place and make a final push for promotion to the Premier League.
This is my last chance to lead the Lions into the promised land. Failure is not an option.
FEBRUARY 2026: IT ALL FALLS APART
We entered February sitting one point inside the top six. The month began with a battle at Kenilworth Road against play-off rivals Luton, where Joe Bryan‘s 13th-minute penalty gave us the lead. Luton levelled late in the first half, and then – two minutes from full-time – this happened.
Liam Kelly really is a liability, isn’t he? He then conceded another soft goal as we lost 3-1. Surely it couldn’t get worse than this?
Oh, but it could. We started the month with just one point from five matches.
We were 1-0 up at home vs Middlesbrough – and lost 3-1. Then we were 2-0 up at home vs Hull (even after a reckless red card for defender Luis Binks) – and drew 2-2. Ryan Longman scored the equaliser, obviously.
After back-to-back stinkers from our other keeper Matija Šarkić, I gave Kelly one last chance in goal when we hosted Reading… and he conceded twice from the Royals’ first two shots on target. Kelly was subbed at half-time and banished to the Under-21s.
The worst was still to come, though. We were somehow clinging onto a play-off place until Sunderland knocked our lights out – a 5-1 demolition sending the Mackems up into 6th and bumping us down to 8th.
Morale was through the floor, and we frankly had no chance of beating Liverpool in the FA Cup, though we did keep the Reds down to two goals at Anfield. That gave us a little confidence as we headed to Burnley, where a late screamer from vice-captain Billy Mitchell stopped the rot.
And boy did we need that win. We could have fallen five or six points off the play-off pace, but Billy’s bullet kept us within touching distance of Sunderland.
MARCH 2026: A NEW ERA
After a year of speculation, chairman James Berylson finally agreed to sell the club. There were no Turkish tycoons to plough millions into Millwall, though – just a generic takeover by a generic businessman with a generic name. Meh.
Anyway, I wonder what James will do with his time now that he’s done running a Championship football club…
…exsqueeze me?! READING?!
Anyway… March saw us build on our victory at Turf Moor to take 10 points from a possible 12.
First up was another thrilling battle with Wayne Rooney’s Southampton™. It looked like yet another goal from our giant captain Jake Cooper (NOT directly from a corner this time) had stolen a win at St Mary’s. Unfortunately, we shut up shop too early and Anthony Martial (no, honestly) levelled for the hosts in stoppage time.
We followed that up with three wins on the bounce. In-form midfielder Isak Hansen-Aarøen scored twice to complete a 4-0 rout of local rivals Charlton, while a late penalty save from Šarkić secured victory in a much closer game against Bristol City. The month ended with a Mika Biereth hat-trick taking care of Plymouth.
That meant I was named manager of the month – which shows I can actually play this game well sometimes! Hansen-Aarøen won the Young Player of the Month award.
Unfortunately, Sunderland were in relentless form themselves under Darren Moore, so we remained three points behind them. Middlesbrough were falling away, though, so perhaps we would have a chance to leapfrog them in the final six games?
Oh, and for those of you who like youth intakes, we had a couple of exciting attackers join our Under-18s this month. Jonathan Carboni is an Argentine winger with great passing technique, while local lad Tom Owen looks like a hard-working and creative centre-forward. Whether you’ll get to see more of them – well, that depends on how this season finishes, doesn’t it?
APRIL & MAY 2026: THE RUN-IN
3 APRIL: STOKE (H)
First up for us in the run-in were Stoke, who were gunning for automatic promotion. Having knocked the Potters out of the FA Cup in January, we felt confident of another win when midfielder Matt Crooks headed home in the 37th minute.
Unfortunately, Stoke equalised within two minutes – and then, about 40 seconds into the second half, an old foe came back to The Den to clinch victory for the Potters.
Of all the good good people, it had to be Danny Bloody McNamara. If that traitor gets promoted and we don’t, I will be FURIOUS!
Some wasteful finishing at the other end meant we couldn’t fight back. Fortunately, Sunderland had also slipped to defeat, so we didn’t really lose any ground.
6 APRIL: BIRMINGHAM (A)
My faith in Šarkić was shaking after that loss, so I reluctantly brought Kelly back into the team when we went to St Andrew’s. Birmingham were in 9th place, but their play-off hopes were all but gone.
Guess what happened next…
Didn’t expect that, did you? Liam Kelly actually kept a clean sheet!
Loanee forward Jesurun Rak-Sakyi opened the scoring after just three minutes, with his first goal since October. The in-form Hansen-Aarøen then followed up his assist by doubling our lead. Then it was just a case of doing a professional job to seal the win.
Meanwhile, another defeat for Sunderland meant we jumped back into 6th – if only by the thinnest of margins. Watford were making a late charge, though, so we had to be wary of them too.
11 APRIL: BLACKPOOL (A)
Before travelling to mid-table Blackpool on my 36th birthday, I had a dilemma. Did I keep Kelly in goal after his clean sheet, even though his season record had been patchy? Or did I restore Šarkić, who wasn’t as talented as Liam but was more dependable in high-pressure matches?
I eventually picked Šarkić… and he rewarded me with this piece of perfectly fine goalkeeping.
[Sigh] That was Blackpool’s first equaliser, after Morgan Fox had slammed in a rare goal from left-back. An incredible solo effort from Aidomo Emakhu restored our lead, but when the Seasiders levelled again in the 79th minute, it seemed that we’d given 6th place back to Sunderland.
Our substitutes had other ideas. Spanish playmaker Roberto López won and then converted a penalty, before centre-back Jarell Quansah completed back-to-back away victories!
18 APRIL: OXFORD UNITED (H)
Frank Lampard’s Oxford were the next visitors to The Den, where the relegation battlers shut us out in a frustrating first half. Was this the moment where we would finally blink?
Nope. I fired up my players with some angry words in the dressing room and made a vital change. Hansen-Aarøen had lost his way in midfield and was replaced with Kieran Dowell, who broke through just 23 seconds after the restart. Joel Latibeaudiere then finished off a free-kick routine to clinch three more points.
Sunderland had returned to form, so they were still breathing down our necks, though we had gained two points on Middlesbrough in 5th. It looked like it would be between us three for the last two play-off places, unless Watford could pull off something special late on.
25 APRIL: SWANSEA (A)
For our penultimate game of the season, we headed to Wales. Swansea were down in 23rd, desperately fighting for survival, without a win in their last five games…
…and they scored after 53 seconds. Straight from the kick-off, the hosts turned into Swanselona circa 2012, putting together 22 consecutive passes before Oliver Cooper finished from close range. We hadn’t even touched the ball once.
We threw everything at Swansea in the first half without reward, so I threw water bottles at half-time. That shook us back into life, as Jake Cooper cancelled out his namesake’s opener with – you guessed it – a corner goal.
That was all we could muster, though, and we stumbled to a 1-1 draw. To make matters worse, Sunderland had won their game and were back in the play-off places, leapfrogging both us and Middlesbrough (who lost 4-1 to Bristol City). Our fate was now out of our hands.
2 MAY: DERBY (H)
So it all came down to this – the final day.
Here’s the situation. We were at home to Derby, who had secured automatic promotion and were now looking to beat Stoke to the title. Middlesbrough and Sunderland would also finish the regular season at home – hosting mid-table teams Birmingham and Plymouth respectively.
If we won, and either Sunderland or Middlesbrough failed to win, we would be in the play-offs. If we drew, we would be relying on Birmingham beating Boro to save us. If we lost – or both our foes in the north-east won – the Millwall dream would be over.
Even though he’d started 44 league matches and seriously needed a rest, captain Coops was fired up for the finale. After just 11 minutes, the beastly centre-back gave us the perfect start by heading in his 16th goal of the season – his 15th from a corner kick!
Cooper then turned provider in the 31st minute, setting up Crooks to double our cushion. Then, just before half-time, we raced into a 3-0 lead with ANOTHER corner goal – this time scored by Quansah!
Sunderland were leading Plymouth 1-0, and they would ultimately race away to a 3-0 win to secure 5th position. This meant we needed Birmingham to hold out against Middlesbrough, where it was still 0-0 at half-time. As things stood, we were pipping Boro to the final play-off spot.
Alas, Middlesbrough eventually took the lead four minutes into the second half to leap back into 6th. Birmingham hit back almost immediately – but when Boro went ahead again on 73 minutes, the dream was fading away again.
As the atmosphere at The Den grew tenser, so did our performance, and we conceded two quickfire Derby goals to put our lead in real danger. Our defence had to recompose late on to see out a 3-2 win, ending Derby’s title dream while keeping our play-off hopes alive.
Now we just needed a miracle at the Riverside. Could Birmingham save us with a late equaliser?
Bollocks.
Despite winning half our league games, Millwall had missed out on the play-offs by ONE point. We would be staying in the Championship for yet another season.
And Danny McNamara’s Stoke won the bloody league as well. FURIOUS.
Brighton went up through the play-offs, by the way – but who really cares anymore?
2025/2026 SEASON REVIEW
We actually didn’t do a lot wrong this season. Defensively, we conceded 56 Championship goals – the 7th-fewest in the league – and kept 14 clean sheets. A lot that was down to some generally impressive goalkeeping from Šarkić, who has the 2nd-highest save percentage in the league (80%) and the 4th-highest expected goals prevented (4.13).
Further forward, we were the kings of corners – scoring 20 of our 77 league goals from those situations. Though we didn’t create a massive amount of chances from open play, our conversion rate (15%) and our xG overperformance (15.12) suggests that we were actually one of the most clinical teams in the league.
Cooper’s corner prowess saw him finish 3rd in the Championship average rating league (on 7.16), while Šarkić was the only other Lion to average at least 7.00. Forwards Emakhu and Biereth also had fine seasons, registering 16 goal contributions apiece.
Unfortunately, consistency was a big problem with several other important players. Hansen-Aarøen provided some fresh impetus to our counter-attacks but also had several off-days, while I never got the best out of the explosive Simon Adingra on a regular basis.
I think our downfall was down to too many sloppy mistakes, particularly when we were in commanding positions late on. We blew a couple of 2-0 leads against Stoke in August and Hull in February. In October, we conceded twice in 11 minutes to go from beating Brighton 1-0 to losing 2-1. Then there’s the Luton loss which kicked off that rotten February.
Just turning one of those losses into a draw would have been enough to sneak into the play-offs. Indeed, if we hadn’t collapsed at Kenilworth Road, who’s to say we might not have kicked on and challenged for automatic promotion?
Shoulda, woulda, coulda, Christopher…
THE END
At the start of this story, I gave myself THREE seasons to take Millwall up into the Premier League. That was always going to be a tough ask, especially with so many teams having much larger budgets and more talented squads than ours.
Nonetheless, I’m very disappointed that we never even qualified for the play-offs. Missing out by a single point this term is a glorious failure, but it’s still failure as far as I’m concerned.
I feel that I changed too much too quickly before the second season, and made too many mediocre signings like Liam Scales and Yuki Soma who really didn’t improve the team. Though I did make amends with some riskier but wiser signings later on, we had ultimately left ourselves with too much ground to make up.
So it’s time to leave the Lions’ Den and learn from my mistakes before I pursue another challenge in another universe. But hey… at least I didn’t balls Millwall up as much as Joe Edwards!
That’s the end of my FM24 beta… no, sorry, ‘Early Access’ story. It might not have been a success, but I hope you’ve enjoyed reading through the carnage of the past three seasons!
I will be back after Christmas to deliver my thoughts on the state of FM24 so far. I will start a long-term FM24 series in the new year, and there is also a new Championship Manager story in the pipeline. More details will be announced soon.
Until then, enjoy the festive holidays – and thank you very much for reading.
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