Stan Mills scored in the final moments of normal time as Oxford United beat Southampton at the Kassam Stadium in the hosts' first Championship game since Gary Rowett was sacked.

United took the lead with a stunning strike by Tyler Goodrham, hitting the ball on the half-volley from outside the box and in at the near post.

Moments later Saints were level as Taylor Harwood-Bellis headed the ball home from a Leo Scienza freekick.

There was late drama however as Mills worked onto Will Lankshear's delightful flick as he finished well past Saints keeper Gavin Bazunu.

Southampton had a penalty shout after 10 minutes after Scienza raced through and appeared to be caught in the box by two closing defenders, but referee Leigh Doughty was not convinced enough to award a spot-kick.

The U's then took the lead against the run of play as Harwood-Bellis headed a ball clear but only as far as Goodrham, who let the ball bounce before sweetly striking home from outside the box with his right foot and into the net.

Just over five minutes later, Saints drew level as Scienza whipped in a cross from a free-kick on the right and found the head of Harwood-Bellis.

Oxford started the second half with a big chance to take the lead, when Przemyslaw Placheta struck from the edge of the box and forced a brilliant save out of Bazunu.

The U's should have taken the lead just after the hour mark when Mills beat two men down the left and darted into the box before passing to the onrushing Nik Prelec, but the forward overcommitted on his run and the pass rolled behind him.

Oxford could have wrapped things up sooner than Mills' late intervention after Siriki Dembele was played through in the box, but their calls for a penalty were waved away.

The Kassam erupted late on, however, as Mills scored his second goal of the season to claim all three points for his side.

Oxford United interim boss Craig Short told BBC Radio Oxford:

"I said to the players after the game that you're not going to get results in this league without crucial saves and last minute blocks.

"You can't play against these top sides without hanging in there, if you concede from a set piece like we did then you have to just hold out of the next few minutes and get to half time.

"The substitutes made a really good impact as well, the best form of defence is attack so let's have a go we thought.

"The fans were great but I said we have to get them going, it was really encouraging but now we have some tough games to come and a really busy period."

Southampton boss Tonda Eckert:

"It's disappointing because we wanted to start this block of games well.

"We lost the calmness a little bit which is something you need in games like that, it continued in the second half and was a very open game.

"We are now halfway through the season and have nowhere near the amount of points that we need.

"The positive thing is that we play again in a few days, we need to make sure we start the second half of the season well."