Town visit Oxford United on Friday night for what manager Kieran McKenna says feels like a second midweek away game, the Blues having won 2-0 at Hull City on Tuesday (KO 8pm, Sky Sports).

The Blues dropped from fourth to fifth following Wednesday’s fixtures but remain three points from the top two with a game in hand, next Tuesday’s third match on the road in eight days at Blackburn Rovers, the restaging of September’s abandoned fixture.

Oxford, in their second season in the Championship having finished 17th last term, are currently 22nd in the table without a win in five, however, they have drawn their last two, 1-1 at home to Middlesbrough last weekend and at Norwich with the same scoreline, bagging a 95th-minute equaliser, on Tuesday.

At the Kassam Stadium, the U’s are without a win in three having won only once in the league on their own turf this season, a 1-0 success against Derby last month, drawing four and losing three.

Only three teams - Norwich, one, Sheffield Wednesday, two, and Blackburn, four - have picked up fewer points than Oxford’s seven at home in the division. Four teams have scored fewer home goals that their total of eight.

Asked after Tuesday’s 2-0 win at Hull City whether Friday’s game at Oxford will be a different type of match, McKenna said the Tigers contest didn’t pan out quite how anyone envisaged beforehand or like the rip-roaring 3-3 at the end of the Blues’ promotion season.

“It was pretty scrappy at times, it wasn’t maybe the open game of excellent football that we had here last time for bits of it, but also the conditions were a lot worse than when we were here last time,” said McKenna, who studied for his UEFA Pro Licence alongside U’s manager Gary Rowett.

“It’s a quick turnaround, which is a challenge in itself. Going there on a Friday night is going to be tough.

“We’ve experience of going to Oxford away, we know it’s a really tough ground to go to.

“Gary Rowett’s a really experienced manager and his teams always have a real toughness and a resilience and work hard, which makes them really difficult to play against, so we’re expecting a big challenge on Friday night.

“We have to recover as quickly as we can and go there with a big, big attitude to show the qualities that we’re going to need to get the result.”

He added: “They’d want to have a few more points on the board, but they’re in and around it along with all the other tough teams in the Championship.

“You can guarantee what you’re going to get from an Oxford team away from home and you know what you’re going to get from a Gary Rowett team away from home.

“They’re a really hard-working side, they play with good intensity, they really try and test you defensively and they’re going to try and make the game really difficult for us.

“We’ll give the game full respect, we’ll recover as well as we can now. Lots of travelling to do to get home and to get back there, but we’ll make sure that by Friday night we’re ready for the battle and ready to play as well as we can.”

Reflecting on how difficult the short Tuesday-Friday gap between away fixtures might be to cope with, McKenna added: “It’s pretty unusual. I presume it’s going to be tough because I’ve not done it before. It feels a little bit like two midweek games, to be honest.

“It’s not a turnaround I’ve had before. Of course, time-wise we’ve played two in this [time period] but when it’s Tuesday night away and a Friday night away, that’s tough, there’s no two ways about it.

“We’ll have to see how the group recovers tonight, make some decisions going into Friday night and I’ll trust that everyone will do everything they can to recover as well as they can and the group that we start with and that we have on the bench will be fully motivated to do well.”

Having failed to win their first four Championship away games, the Blues have now won their last three, scoring 10 goals, while drawing their two most recent matches at Portman Road.

“These things flip round in football and sometimes it goes in cycles and you can delve too deeply into analysing it,” McKenna added.

“I told the group after [the 0-0 home draw with Wrexham on] Saturday that I think in the last four homes games we’ve had 80-plus shots, two goals. Away games, we’ve 23 shots and eight goals in the last two before [Hull]. You can end up overanalysing it.

“There are qualities that you need to show away from home, and we’re starting to show those more.

“For sure, teams are presenting us with a different challenge at Portman Road that we need to keep working on to improve how we rise to, but the games away from home are always really, really tough and Friday under the lights away to Oxford is certainly one in that category.”

McKenna was reminded of the Blues’ last visit to the Kassam Stadium in League One almost three years ago, a game played in heavy fog, the U’s netting a winner after both managers had asked for the game to be abandoned.

“That’s one of those days which will always stick in the memory, not what was going on on the pitch because we couldn’t see very much of it, but the whole ordeal,” McKenna recalled.

“I think certainly [CEO and chairman] Mark Ashton knows that that’s one never to mention to me because it’s still a bit of a sore topic.

“But it’s a lifetime ago really, and the weather forecast looks alright for Friday night, so it should be a different game.”

The Team

McKenna confirmed that no one sidelined will be ready to return - “No, not for Friday” - while Jens Cajuste looks certain to miss out having rolled his ankle at the MKM Stadium on Tuesday.

Christian Walton, whose back-to-back clean sheets in the last two games were his first consecutively since a streak of three in April 2023, will continue in goal.

McKenna could make a change at right-back where he has plenty of options with Ashley Young perhaps coming in for Darnell Furlong, who has started both the games earlier in the week.

Skipper Dara O’Shea will be partnered by either Jacob Greaves or Cedric Kipre with Leif Davis at left-back.

In midfield, Azor Matusiwa will keep his place with Jack Taylor appearing certain to return to the XI for Cajuste.

Ahead of them, McKenna could make wholesale changes with Sindre Walle Egeli coming in on the right, Jaden Philogene on the left and Chuba Akpom as the number 10.

Akpom, who netted his first goal for the club on Tuesday, is also an option as the number nine but McKenna may choose to start George Hirst or Ivan Azon in that role with number 10 choices limited with Sammie Szmodics sidelined but perhaps back as soon as next week.

History

Historically, the Blues have had the better of the U’s, winning nine (seven in the league) of the games between the teams, drawing 10 (10) and losing seven (seven).

Four of the last eight games between the teams have ended goalless and five of the last eight have been draws.

Town are yet to win a competitive match at the Kassam Stadium with their only win there a 5-1 pre-season friendly success in July 2004.

The Blues have never won an away league game against Oxford United, although they did record a 2-1 Coca-Cola Cup victory in November 1997 at the Manor Ground.

Town’s only away league win in Oxford in their history was a 4-1 success over Oxford City in the Southern Amateur League back in February 1913.

The teams last met in January 2023 when the Blues were left rueing missed chances and bizarre refereeing as they lost further ground in the promotion battle following a 2-1 defeat in thick fog at the Kassam Stadium.

Yanic Wildschut gave the U’s the lead in the 34th minute before Davis headed Town level four minutes later with his first career goal.

However, Cameron Brannagan won the game for the home side with seven minutes left on the clock with a low strike from outside the area with few having seen precisely what had happened due to the poor visibility.

Both managers had wanted to abandon the game due to the conditions, calling referee Bobby Madden over to the touchline in the 74th minute, but the official erroneously claimed he couldn’t abandon and then restage the fixture once the match had passed the then-imminent 75-minute mark. That being the case, with the game at 1-1 and both teams in need of three points, it continued.

At Portman Road on Boxing Day 2022, Freddie Ladapo, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin were on target as Town comfortably beat Oxford 3-0 to claim their first victory over the U’s since February 1999.

Ladapo followed up Chaplin’s volley in the 39th minute to give the Blues the lead, then six minutes later Burns hooked home a corner to make it 2-0 and Chaplin made it three with nine minutes left.

Familiar Faces

Town wing-back Burns spent time on loan at Oxford during the 2014/15 season, making six starts and three sub appearances, scoring once.

Blues CEO and chairman Ashton previously held the same position at Oxford, while commercial director Andy Wooldridge was head of corporate with the U’s during the same period.

Left-back Greg Leigh joined Oxford from the Blues in the summer of 2023 having spent one season with Town, making nine starts and 13 sub appearances, scoring once.

Oxford’s head of recruitment is one-time Town full-back, academy coach and recruitment head Scott Mitchell, who joined them after leaving Wycombe Wanderers a year ago.

Officials

Friday’s referee is Matt Donohue, his assistants Craig Taylor and Richard Woodward, and the fourth official James Bell.

Donohue has shown 50 yellow cards and one red in 11 games so far this season.

The Manchester-based official has refereed two Blues matches already this season, the 1-0 defeat at Preston in August, in which he yellow-carded Ben Johnson, Kasey McAteer and six home players, and the 2-1 loss at Middlesbrough just over a month ago in which he cautioned Matusiwa and three Teessiders.

Prior to that, Donohue had taken charge of four previous Town games, the most recent the 1-0 defeat to Norwich at Carrow Road in April 2024 when he booked only Axel Tuanzebe.

Three months earlier, he was the man in the middle for the 3-1 FA Cup victory at AFC Wimbledon in which he red-carded Wombles midfielder Harry Pell for a second bookable offence and also cautioned Tuanzebe, George Edmundson, Marcus Harness and one other Dons player.

He was also in charge of the 3-0 home victory over Hull City in October 2023 in which he - unusually judging by his overall stats - kept his cards in his pocket throughout.

Prior to that, Donohue refereed the 1-1 draw at Morecambe in February 2022 in which he booked only Macauley Bonne and Tyreeq Bakinson.

Squad From

Walton, Button, Gray, Furlong, Johnson, Young, H Clarke, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Taylor, Nunez, Humphreys, J Clarke, Walle Egeli, Philogene, McAteer, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.

Photo: TWTD