Billy Whitehurst in action at the Dell in November 1987

Oxford United travel to the south coast on Saturday for their first visit to the St Mary’s Stadium, which has been Southampton’s home since 2001.

Let’s hope that it brings a change of fortunes for the U’s, who have visited Soton eight times previously and have yet to win there. Indeed, United have picked up just one solitary point at the Dell, a 1-1 draw on April Fool’s Day 1986 thanks to a John Aldridge goal.

Oxford’s first trip to Southampton was for an FA Cup third round replay in January 1969, when Arthur Turner’s boys went down 2-0 to the Saints. The crowd of 24,270 remains the largest to have watched the clubs do battle.

The first league encounter on the south coast ended in a 2-1 defeat for United in a Second Division game in March 1975, with Steve Aylott on target for the U’s. It was the same scoreline on Easter Monday the following year, as Oxford eventually suffered the first relegation in the club’s history.

Following that 1986 draw, the sides met twice again in the top flight, in April and November 1987. Both matches ended 3-0 to the Saints. In January 1990, the sides met again in the FA Cup in Southampton, this time the home side winning 1-0 [Watch HERE].

The last time the teams played each other at the Dell was in a League Cup replay in December 1996. Despite goals from Nigel Jemson and Bobby Ford, United lost 3-2 [Watch HERE].

You can see all Oxford’s results against Southampton HERE.

On This Date

Of the 17 games that Oxford have played on 21st March, they have won just five and drawn six.

It wasn’t until their fifth match on this date that the Yellows won, beating Fulham 2-0 at the Manor in 1981. Nine years later, in 1990, Leicester City were the visitors for a game that the U’s won 4-2 [Watch HERE].

United won for the third consecutive game on 21st March two years later, when they beat Portsmouth 2-1 thanks to goals from Joey Beauchamp and Trevor Aylott [Watch HERE].

After a 3-0 defeat at Birmingham City in 1995 [Watch HERE], there was a strange coincidence as the next three 21st March fixtures were all away to Bury. United lost 1-0 in 1998 [Watch HERE], won 2-1 in 2000, and drew 1-1 in 2006.

The last time that Oxford won on this date was in 2014 in League Two, when David Connolly’s goal was enough to see off ten-man Hartlepool on Good Friday [Watch HERE].

The last time that United played on 21st March was in 2017, when they went down 4-2 at home to Bolton Wanderers in League One [Watch HERE].

If you really want to check out all Oxford’s 21st March results, click HERE.

The Game

Having taken 10 points from the last four games, Oxford could be considered one of the form teams in the Championship, and they really should have won all four but for a moment of madness when Ciaron Brown gifted Charlton a penalty in stoppage time last Saturday to draw the game 1-1.

However, United’s good form pales into insignificance when compared to that of Southampton’s, who have won eight and drawn three of their last 11 Championship games. Their most recent outing saw them see off another in-form side in Norwich City, beating the Canaries 1-0 at St Mary’s on Wednesday to leapfrog Wrexham into the top six.

In addition, the Saints have qualified for the FA Cup quarter finals following their 1-0 win at Fulham at the start of the month. Their next game after United sees them host Arsenal.

Despite the Yellows’ recent upturn in form, the side remains in the relegation zone, although to say that it’s tight down there is a bit of stating the bleeding obvious. United are one point ahead of Leicester and one behind both West Brom and Portsmouth, with Blackburn two points above those. With Charlton now on 48 points following their draw at the Kassam, it looks likely that it will be two from those five that will join Sheffield Wednesday in League One next season.

There are one or two factors that might give Oxford some hope of getting their first win in Southampton at the ninth time of trying. First, the Saints did have that energy-sapping game against Norwich in midweek, while the U’s have had a free week; second, it’s possible that the Southampton players’ minds will be on the FA Cup tie against Arsenal following the international break, subconsciously making them less likely to risk injury or suspension; and the third straw that we’re grasping really tightly, is that the law of averages states that surely we’re due a win there… surely?

Of course, United do have decent form against the top sides: they’ve drawn all four matches against the top two teams in the division: Coventry and Middlesbrough; they’ve beaten Ipswich and drawn with Millwall, and they did beat Southampton 2-1 at home on Boxing Day [Watch HERE], so whatever the bookies might claim, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the U’s will spring a surprise on Saturday.

Against Charlton, an injury to Myles Peart-Harris meant that United were unable to field an unchanged starting XI for the fourth successive game, with Aidomo Emakhu coming into the team. However, MPH was thought to be out for only a short time, so may well be in contention to return on Saturday. So, will Matt Bloomfield revert to the same side that secured victories against West Brom, Preston, and Blackburn?

It’s highly likely that he will, should MPH be fit. There are one or two changes that he might make, should he deem Southampton’s threat to be different to the other sides mentioned. It’s possible that he might prefer the athleticism of Brodie Spencer to the solidity of Sam Long at right back; he might also consider that Christ Makosso’s ability on the ball would be a better option to Michał Helik’s aerial dominance.

On the wing, Przsemysłav Płacheta came on for Emakhu and made an immediate impact, so should MPH not be ready to start, the Pole will doubtless be in the manager’s mind. Finally, and we concede that it’s unlikely, it’s possible that Nik Prelec might be given a rare start should leading scorer Will Lankshear be rested.

We can’t see any other changes to the side, but you never know. Will Vaulks or Jamie McDonnell might be preferred to Yunus Konak at the base of midfield, while Płacheta might be preferred to Stan Mills on the right wing (with the possibility, I guess, of Mills being shunted over to the left). However, some of these look like changes for the sake of it, and Bloomfield strikes me as more pragmatic than that (at least since he learned his lesson from the Norwich debacle).

Do we think United can win? Well yes, of course. Do we think they will win? Um, allow us to hedge our bets on that. They will be backed by a sold-out away end of over 3,000 Yellows fans who will doubtless be suitably buoyant, and we know that the boys respond to our support. Whatever else, it promises to be a good day out so let’s all go there and give it our best shot.

UTFO

Games since a penalty: a big fat zero