DES Buckingham was pleased to see his Oxford United side salvage a late draw after what had been a largely tame display.

Japhet Tanganga gave visiting side Millwall, unbeaten in eight games prior to kick-off, the lead when he headed in at the back post just before three minutes of first half stoppage time were signalled.

The U’s gradually grew into the second period, and with five minutes to go rescued a point courtesy of a long-range stunner from Tyler Goodrham.

The 21-year-old picked the ball up on the right-hand side and came inside before striking a cracking left-footed effort from 25 yards, with the ball flying past Lukas Jensen in the Lions goal.

United head coach Buckingham said: “In the first half, we showed how important even in this league, we have to battle, compete and do all the horrible side to the game, which was important because we knew how strong they were at that.

“But we didn’t play. We didn’t play our game. We’ve reverted back to a formation that we know, where we’ve been away from it for two or three weeks.

“There was a little bit of rustiness clearly there, but also, we need to play. We need to play with the ball, we need to move the ball quickly, and I don’t feel we did that.

“We matched their tempo, and they’ve got a way of doing it. We spoke about it at half-time, and the second half was much better.

“That was us. That was much better in the second half for us. We need to make sure, we’ve got a good run of games coming up, that this is us for the full game.

“We spoke in League One about having to compete, and physically compete. We’re not the biggest or strongest, but we certainly give a good go of ourselves.

“That is still prevalent in the Championship. We’ve shown we can do it, but when we do that, we can’t come away from the other side.”

Buckingham praised the impact of his substitutions in helping the U’s push gradually higher up the pitch in the second half.

Discussing the late equaliser, Buckingham said: “It was a carry on of momentum from the players, starting with the change at half-time.

“Idris came on, and then the players that came on throughout the second half really continued some really strong momentum and got us up the pitch.

“It gave us different ways of causing a threat and backed them off quite a lot, and Tyler doesn’t score tap-ins does he?”