DES Buckingham isn’t surprised by the position Millwall find themselves in after more than a third of the season.

The Lions are ninth in Sky Bet Championship, three points shy of the play-off places.

Unfancied by many as promotion contenders at the beginning of the campaign, Millwall have climbed the table in recent weeks thanks to an eight-game unbeaten run.

Oxford United welcome the Lions tomorrow afternoon for a 12:30pm kick-off.

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United head coach Buckingham said: “They’re probably where they should be. I think with the squad they’ve got and the manager they’ve got, they’re a very established club and sitting ninth in the league.

“They’re similar to some of the other teams maybe in false positions that are lower down the table at the moment.

“Although they haven’t blown away teams in terms of scorelines, what they have been is be very effective with how they play.

“They’ve had a run of 1-0 games, and they manage the game extremely well. I’m not really surprised, the table is starting to balance itself out a little bit.”

The U’s meanwhile have lost three on the bounce, suffering defeats to Championship high-flyers Watford, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United.

Buckingham said: “We’re at home and we will want to get back to winning ways first and foremost. We want to pick up points that will take us away from where we are.

“In the first few weeks, we sat in the higher heights of the table, and you look up sometimes rather than down, which is never a bad thing, but it is the harsh reality of this league.

“It will level itself out to a point, but what we will need to do is make sure we’ve got a plan around how we want to do things, and if we do that, we’ll put ourselves in the best position to stay where we want to stay.”

Millwall are set to pose a different challenge to United tomorrow, with the Lions favouring a more direct approach.

Neil Harris’ side have the lowest average possession per game in the Championship (38.7 per cent) and have completed the least passes.

Buckingham said: “There’s no one way of playing which guarantees any type of result.

“That’s certainly something we’ve seen in this league, whether it’s going to Sheffield United the other night and seeing how they play, or it’s Middlesbrough, and how quick and free-flowing they were, or the type of football Millwall have played, and shown it can be extremely effective in this league, to get performances and results for them.”