Kevin Brock scores United’s goal in a 1-1 draw at Ewood Park in February 1985

Weather permitting, Oxford United travel to Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday for another long midweek away trip.

Last season, Mark Harris scored what would surely have been the goal of the season to put United ahead at Ewood Park in the second away game of the campaign, had Cameron Brannagan not smashed home that ridiculous free kick at Cardiff in the season’s penultimate away game.

The fact that Oxford lost that game 2-1 in Blackburn shouldn’t really come as a surprise, given that the U’s have won just once in 14 attempts at Ewood Park. That was a 3-1 win at the end of December in 1990, when goals from Lee Nogan, Steve Foster, and John Durnin were enough for the victory.

Other notable games there include a 1-1 draw in February 1985 (see picture) as Oxford stormed their way to the Division Two title on their way to the top flight, while in May 2018, Rovers sealed promotion from League One with an end-of-season 2-1 win over United, with James Henry scoring for the Yellows and Karl Robinson indulging in fisticuffs with pitch-invading Rovers fans.

United’s complete record against Blackburn Rovers can be seen HERE.

On this Date

Oxford have played 13 times on 9th December, of which eight have been away from home. The U’s have won just two of those eight, including a 3-2 win at St James’ Park with Jimmy Phillips, Ceri Evans, and Paul Simpson sending the Newcastle United fans home unhappy in the second tier in 1989.

The other 9th December win came in the FA Cup second round, when Oxford travelled to Wrexham in 2013 to disappoint the Sky pundits by preventing a giant killing, as Ryan Williams and James Constable scored in a 2-1 win to set up a third round tie at Charlton Athletic.

The last time United played on this date was two years ago, when they suffered a disappointing 3-0 defeat at Peterborough United, although the U’s had the last laugh, beating the Posh on aggregate in the League One play-off semi-final.

Check out all of Oxford’s 9th December games HERE.

The Game

Blackburn’s last scheduled home game, last Saturday, ended up a damp squib when their match against Sheffield Wednesday was abandoned after an hour due to a waterlogged pitch, with Rovers leading 1-0. With more heavy rain forecast, the game against Oxford must be a doubt, although until it’s officially called off we have to assume that it will go ahead.

Oxford will be desperate to play and take the chance to put Saturday’s terrible display at Swansea behind them. Whether or not they’ll be able to isn’t up to us to predict (given my appalling predictions recently, I’m not going to bother anymore – who knows which Oxford side will turn up?) but they need to do something to show the increasingly disillusioned fanbase that they do have what it takes to stay up this season.

Blackburn have won just one home game all season, beating Southampton 2-1 at the end of October, and recently have lost to Derby, QPR, and Ipswich Town, who Oxford have taken seven points from so far this season. In fact, only the bottom two clubs (Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich City) have worse home records in the Championship than Rovers. This is not necessarily a good thing, given United’s penchant for ending other teams’ poor runs (just look at bloody Swansea bloody City, for example).

Gary Rowett simply must make changes to the side that capitulated so poorly at the Swansea.com Stadium (please can we revert to calling it the Liberty Stadium? So much cooler). Toothless in attack, overrun in midfield, and lacking any composure in defence, it’s difficult for any player (possible exception Brian De Keersmaecker) to make a case for a starting berth.

However, someone has to start (preferably 11 someones) and some positions pick themselves. Obviously Jamie Cumming in goal, Michał Helik (and arguably Ciaron Brown) in the centre of defence, and BDK in midfield. Otherwise anyone could feature.

We wouldn’t be averse to seeing Hidde ter Avest at right-back and maybe give Jack Currie a break on the other side, with Greg Leigh coming back in. Assuming the non-availability of Przsemysłav Płacheta (who missed Swansea through injury) and Siriki Dembélé (not selected for the past few games for ‘non-football reasons’) then you’d probably want Stan Mills on the right wing, while Tyler Goodrham would start by default, not having been involved in the Swansea debacle.

Up front, Mark Harris failed to take his opportunity to make himself the number one striker, so it should be the club’s leading scorer Will Lankshear to come back into the side, or maybe give Nik Prelec a go up top. If Tyler’s playing on the left, maybe see how useful Filip Krastev is in the #10 role?

These are all just baseless musings really, as Rowett should be aware of his best line-up and nothing we say could or should influence that. It’s Rowett who will, eventually, live or die (metaphorically speaking, hopefully) by the results he gets from the sides he picks and he, as much as anyone, will be aware that recently things just haven’t been good enough.

Over to you, Gary (or the rain gods, whoever determines what happens on the night).