Match Preview: Sunderland v Oxford United – all you need to know ahead of kick-off!

Saturday 26th October 2024

(1st) Sunderland v Oxford United (11th)

Championship

Stadium of Light

Kick-Off: 15:00

Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets are available here.

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…

Today’s fixture feels like going back to our League One days – in fact, we hadn’t played Oxford United this century before we returned to the third tier.

The last time they visited, was just under three years ago, and if anyone needs a little reminder of how far we’ve come in three short years, just take a look at the line-ups below. Only Dan Neil remains from the starting XI, and Anthony Patterson was the only other member of today’s squad who was named on the bench that day.

This time, we go into the same fixture, sitting three points clear of Burnley and Leeds United at the top of the table, after a week where questions over which way our away form might head were answered.

Today, we return to the Stadium of Light boasting the second-best home record in the division, where we remain unbeaten, and only Blackburn Rovers have taken more points – although they’ve played a game more on home soil.

After impressive victories on the road, today’s fixture, where we may have expected three points, feels like a potential banana skin. Let’s hope it’s not the afternoon’s coupon buster.

Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images

As discussed above, we only met up again with today’s opponents when we were relegated to League One in May 2018, but Oxford are back in the second tier for the first time since our record-breaking 105-point title winning season in 1998-99.

This came courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers in the play-off final in a season that saw their manager Liam Manning depart for the Bristol City vacancy in November.

The choice of his replacement was a bit left-field. Oxford-born Les Buckingham, who had been a youth player at the club at the beginning of the century, had been coaching in New Zealand, where his reputation grew wider, leading to the head job with Mumbai City in the Indian Super League.

Then after taking the job, he went on to lead the U’s to promotion in his first season – not a bad start. This of course meant that they would be pre-season favourites to head straight back down to League One, but so far they’re holding their own.

But despite the fact they are unbeaten in the last five, they haven’t won in the last six, and they haven’t won on Wearside since 1994 – so you’d presume they’d be happy to make it six draws in a row this afternoon.

Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images

The betting…

The Lads are 4/7 to take all three points today, while an away win for Oxford is priced at 24/5 and the draw is 16/5.

Head to head… in Sunderland

(At Roker Park/Stadium of Light in all competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 11
• Draws: 5
• Oxford United wins: 2
• Sunderland goals: 32
• Oxford United goals: 10

Last time we met… at the Stadium of Light

Saturday 4th December 2021

Sky Bet League One

Sunderland 1-1 Oxford United

[Dajaku 7’ – Taylor 36’]

Sunderland: Hoffmann, Flanagan, Wright, Doyle, Gooch, Neil, Winchester, Dajaku (Embleton), Pritchard (O’Brien), Broadhead, Stewart Substitutes not used: Patterson, Johnson, Dyce, Younger, Kimpioka

Oxford United: Eastwood, Forde, Long, Henry (McGuane), McNally, Moore, Whyte, Brannagan, Taylor (Agyei), Kane, Holland (Sykes) Substitutes not used: Plumley, Thorniley, Williams, Bodin

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Played for both…

Andy Melville

Oxford United seems to be one of those clubs where players have turned out for both sides, especially during the years that saw Denis Smith and Malcolm Crosby in charge at the Manor Ground – and from that list, we’ll go with Andy Melville.

Melville 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 made a move to sign the Welsh international for an initial fee of £500,000 – although the deal also included Anton Rogan in exchange.

Melville would spend a successful six years on Wearside making over 200 appearances. A classy defender on his day, his final season would see him 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.

And you can listen back to when we talked to him about his career on the Roker Rapport podcast here.

Photo by Matthew Ashton/EMPICS via Getty Images