Millwall against next season

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Millwall will yet again be in the Championship for the 2025/26 season, their ninth in a row. Only Bristol City, Queens Park Rangers, Preston North End (this will be their eleventh) and Middlesbrough (this will be their ninth) come close to such a consistent streak. Let's see what the other clubs from the 2017/18 season have been up to:

  • Eleven clubs have made it to the Premier League. Wolverhampton Wanderers were promoted this season and never looked back, Fulham took some relegations here and there before staying there from 2022 onwards, and Aston Villa have been in the Champions League.
  • Eleven clubs have made it to League One. Cardiff City were promoted to the Premier League in 2017/18, but were relegated to the third tier this season. Sunderland, meanwhile, have done the complete opposite of that.
  • One club has been down to League Two - Bolton Wanderers, mainly due to poor ownership, and even then they were promoted immediately back from there to League One. 
  • Twelve of the clubs that played that season will be in the Championship this season, including Millwall.

However, the 2025/26 season will see various new faces to the Championship, some more familiar than others. Here are the last times Millwall played the new six:

This was the game with the Ryan Longman goal which amazed everyone at The Den. A curling strike from just inside the box which helped Millwall obtain a crucial 1-0 win. Leicester went on to win promotion to the Premier League, but have been immediately relegated following a rather weak go at it. This season, Leicester will have a different manager, and probably an entirely different squad.
 
Man pats horse after the last Leicester game
After being relegated last year, Birmingham City managed to spend millions to go straight back up to the Championship, obtaining an impressive 111 points to do so, an EFL record. But the last time they played Millwall, it was a 1-0 win for the Lions, following a dramatic Japhet Tanganga header in the 89th minute. I wrote a haiku about it.
 
To date, the last time Millwall fans left after a Birmingham match
Millwall, fighting for relegation, bringing in Neil Harris to try and keep them up. High flying Southampton, who loved scoring goals and bringing about chaos, was the first opponent for Harris. So Millwall obviously won 2-1 away. Southampton went on to win promotion to the Premier League, but have been immediately relegated following a shambolic effort - 12 points in 38 games!
The sun sets on Southampton

One of the last games of Joe Edwards' time as Millwall manager was an abject 4-0 defeat at home. Sure, Ipswich were quite decent for a newly promoted team that season, but the writing on the wall had only become bolder by now. Hard to consider what it would be like, just ten days later. Ipswich went on to win promotion to the Premier League, but have been immediately relegated following a rather weak go at it.

The first match between Millwall and the six teams which was played more than a year ago, it dates back to fellow south Londoners Charlton's last season in the Championship, when they were relegated immediately to League One after one season. The match in question was a 1-0 win for Millwall, played behind closed doors at The Valley due to COVID-19 regulations, so this season will see the return of fans to this matchup for the first time in six years. Millwall haven't lost to Charlton since a 2-0 defeat in 1996, though neither club was in the same league for very long aside from three years in the Championship from 2012 to 15.

Charlton 0 Millwall 1 - Jake Cooper earns Lions victory at Valley as ...
Courtesy of londonnewsonline.co.uk, you can see the jubilation
The only true dating anomaly applies to a club that was in non-league football as recently as 2023, but thanks to financial backing and excess media attention has risen up to the Championship just in time for this year. When they last played each other, Neil Harris was playing up front for Millwall, and Tim Cahill netted the equalising goal in a 1-1 draw in the third tier. It also looks like there was crowd trouble, with Millwall fans getting into Wrexham stands and invading the pitch, though I'm not sure why.
 
Millwall's record against Wrexham is rather mediocre - six wins in twenty-six - though that's probably as most of the matches were played in the 60s. Let's hope that becomes eight wins in twenty-eight come May next year.

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