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Rowett was relieved of his duties earlier this week after a run of one league win in nine matches with the U's, leaving them 22nd in the standings and two points from safety.

But the hosts made a promising start when Tyler Goodrham's stunner put them ahead, only for Taylor Harwood-Bellis's 29th-minute header to level things up shortly after for the Saints.

Interim Oxford boss Craig Short looked set to take a point from his first game in charge until one minute from time, when Mills found the bottom-right corner from inside the box.

"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," Short said after the win.

"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."

For Saints boss Tonda Eckert, the result was a disapointing one.

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

"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."