Match Preview: Oxford United v Sunderland
2025-04-26T05:00:00Z
Just two games to go now until the serious business of the play-offs gets underway, as the Lads travel to Oxford United this afternoon. Will we get back to winning ways?
Saturday 26th April 2025
(19th) Oxford United v Sunderland (4th)
Championship
Kassam Stadium
Kick-Off: 15:00
Tickets & Match Coverage
Tickets: Tickets are sold out.
TV/Stream: Full live match coverage available via www.safc.com to residents outside the UK and Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man only.
Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)
Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.com!
The build-up…
The last time we took on Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium was three years ago. It was the 9th April 2022 with six games to go of our League One campaign, and ahead of kick-off, we sat 7th in the table two points behind Wycombe Wanderers in 6th, and The U’s were two points behind us, breathing down our neck in 8th.
In that fixture that day, the two clubs took to the field in equal terms as promotion rivals. Three seemingly long/short, depending on how you look at it, years later, we await our opponents in the play-offs as we attempt to join the Premier League, while Oxford look over their shoulders as they sit three points above the drop.
We travel to Oxford with a pretty impressive record home and away against them. We haven’t suffered defeat against today’s opponents since April 1994, when Denis Smith returned with his Oxford United side and came back from two down against Mick Buxton’s Sunderland at Roker to take all three points.
For our last defeat at their place, we have to look back a bit further to when they played at the Manor Ground when the Lads went down 3-0 in December 1991, which then became Denis Smith’s final game in charge of Sunderland.
Today, however, it’s the same as it has been for the last month or so, where the result doesn’t necessarily matter, but all eyes will be on team selection and players looking sharp as we nudge ever closer to that first leg of the semi-final.
I quite often play out the argument that sometimes a manager who gains promotion, especially to the Premier League, is moving themselves closer to getting the sack, which is the scenario that played out over the last year or so at Oxford United.
Having not been in the second tier of English football since 1998-99, it was party time last May when Des Buckingham led them to glory in the play-off final against Bolton Wanderers to seal promotion. This came only around 15 years after they spent three years in the National League, so this was an especially big deal for the club.
Buckingham then won three out of the first five this season, but a run of one win in 17 meant he was out of a job before Christmas. Former Millwall, Derby County, Stoke City and Birmingham City boss Gary Rowett was the man to replace him, and a nine-game unbeaten did just the trick for the fans to start asking who that Buckingham fella was.
They now sit three points clear with two games to go and with the likes of Luton Town, Cardiff City, Derby County and Hull City in and around them, this will be a huge achievement if the U’s stay up – so expect it to be a good atmosphere this afternoon and a good test for the Lads.
The betting…
The bookies have the Lads at slight favourites at 6/4, while Oxford are at 9/5 to take all three points, and the draw is 11/5.
Head to head… at Oxford
(All competitions)
Sunderland wins: 9
Draws: 6
Oxford United wins: 5
Sunderland goals: 23
Oxford United goals: 22
Last time we met… at the Kassam Stadium
Saturday 9th April 2022
Sky Bet League One
Oxford United 1-2 Sunderland
[Moore 35’ – Evans 16’, Embleton 89’]
Sunderland: Patterson, Winchester, Wright, Cirkin, Gooch, Roberts (O’Nien), Evans, Matete, Clarke (Embleton), Broadhead (Batth), Stewart Substitutes not used: Hoffmann, Hume, Doyle, Neil Oxford United: Stevens, Long (Winnall), Brown, Kane, McNally, Moore, Sykes, Bodin, Taylor, Brannagan, Holland (Whyte) Substitutes not used: Eastwood, Seddon, Forde, McGuane, Williams
Played for both…
Dean Whitehead
One of Mick McCarthy’s bargain signings when he joined from Oxford United in June 2004 for only £150,000 via a tribunal – a snip considering Whitehead would make 200 appearances for the Lads over five years.
He was captain for the Lads as we romped to the Championship title under Roy Keane in 2007 whilst also being included in the PFA Team of the Year. A move to Stoke City followed in 2009 for an initial £3m rising to a possible £5m and he would end his career after spells with Middlesbrough and Huddersfield Town.
Andy Melville
The Welsh international began his career with Swansea City where he spent his first four years ahead of a move to Oxford United in the summer of 1990. It would be three years before Terry Butcher signed the central defender for an initial fee of £500,000 plus Anton Rogan in exchange.
Melville would spend a successful six years on Wearside, making over 200 appearances. In his final season Melville would miss only two League games as Sunderland won the second tier with 105 points in 1999.
Spells at Fulham, West Ham United and Nottingham Forest followed Sunderland before retirement in 2005.
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