Oxford United (H) 30th Nov, 3pm - FA Cup 2nd Round

Match Centre 24/25 Match Centre 19/20
1

“Who gives a **** about an Oxford comma?”

- Oxford Comma, Vampire Weekend (2007)

Oxford United

Highly questionable home ‘advantage’ aside, this is arguably the toughest tie Walsall could have drawn in Round 2. Saturday’s visitors are 6th in League One and unbeaten in their last 15 games in all competitions. During that period they have scored 40 goals and conceded 8.

The free scoring U’s have goals across the team, with ex-Dingle James Henry leading the charge with eight from midfield, amply assisted by Tariqe Fosu-Henry (7), Matty Taylor (6) and Cameron Brannagan (5).

Oxford are managed by Franchise-nurturing charisma vacuum Karl Robinson, who this week urged his team to make history at Bescot, where they can break a club record unbeaten run dating back to 1991.

Recent Form

Oct 29 Sunderland (H) Drew 1-1, Won on penalties (FLT)
Nov 02 Portsmouth (A) Drew 1-1 (L1)
Nov 10 Hayes & Yeading United (A) Won 2-0 (FAC)
Nov 12 Crawley Town (A) Won 4-1 (FLT)
Nov 23 Southend (A) Won 4-0 (L1)

Previous Meeting

6th April, 2019. A 3-1 home defeat against 10 man Oxford preludes the inevitable sacking of Dean Keates. A standout farce even in the truly miserable context of the past three years.

Played for Both

The current Oxford squad features ex-Saddlers Dan Agyei and Anthony Forde, whilst Cameron Norman and Walsall captain James Clarke have both played for the U’s.

Banbury-born Mick Kearns started his career at Oxford before dedicating 40 years to Walsall FC as a player, coach and leader of the club’s Community Programme. Paul Merson signed James Constable for £4,000 from Chippenham in 2005, he went on to enjoy the most prolific spell of his career during six-years at the Kassam.

Prediction

Out of pies by 3 o’clock, out of the Cup by 5.

Match Poll

  • Walsall Win
  • Draw
  • Oxford Win
0 voters
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2

:joy:

1-3

3

I think i will be sticking some money on either a 0-3 or 0-4

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4

Lets go for a shock win…2-0 for me. Its about time we had a cup run.

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5

Always the optimist :joy:

I’ll go for 0-2

6

3-1 home win and away at Forest Green/Carlisle in 3rd rd

7

Yes well its better than living in misery you know!

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8

2-0 to the Saddlers, I am going so it had better be !

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9

I wouldn’t know :wink:

10

:wink:That is a shame…cheer up you will still be able to go to Spain when we leave…sorry wrong thread.

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11

Most beautifully eloquent and accurate Karl with a K bashing I’ve ever read.

Kudos @simon

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12

Anyone know if the match is on ifollow /dodgy tv channel?

13

Their manager Karl Robinson has already said that he will not be resting anyone or taking this game lightly… So we are going to need to put in our best performance of the season so far and also hope Oxford take the win for granted and put in a poor performance.
Looking forward to this one its the FA cup and you never know. As underdogs we have a free hit. A win and to be in the bag for the 3rd round would be all the sweeter after our start to life in league 2.
Come on you saddlers 2-1 win in front of 3859

14

OMG i forgot that he was manager :see_no_evil: i can’t stand the smug bastard :worried:

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15

FA cup games are excluded from IFollow

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16

I did think that. Cheers.

17

Hope for the best (win of course), prepare for the worst (out of the cup in first 15-20 mins).

18

i know its the cup and anything can happen but i have a bad feeling we are going to get took to the cleaners here 1-4.

19

This is going to be so tough.
13 goals in their last 5.
27 goals in their last 10.
This might not be pretty, but with it being the FA Cup you just never know.

Although, I’m going for a 5-1 defeat and a harsh reality check… come 5pm we will all realise just how far away we are from being a League One team now.

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20

Does anyone remember a mad game with Oxford in the early 80s when their fans had a big punch-up between themselves? No Saddlers involved. Not sure if I ever knew what it was about. I’d guess it was 1982, but might have been '81 or '83.

Not very confident about tomorrow, but we are Walsall after all. Teams in form hold little for us to fear, now if they had lost eight in a row and not scored since Prince Andrew last sweated then we might as well not bother turning up. So I will clutch at a handily placed straw and say 2-1 to us and ManYoo away in the third round. And Spurs away in the fourth.

1 Like