Oxford United are battling to avoid the relegation zone and come into this game with one win and three draws in their last five matches, including a recent 1-1 draw with Blackburn. They have shown resilience at home, though their overall home record is one of the weakest in the league.
Preston are in strong form, currently on a four-game unbeaten run (one win, three draws), including an impressive 1-1 draw against league leaders Coventry despite being down to ten men.
Head-to-Head (H2H): Recent encounters have been closely contested, with the last meeting ending in a 1-1 draw. Historically, Oxford has a slight edge in home games against Preston.
Team News​

Mads Frøkjær has missed the last two matches with what’s been described as a hamstring ‘niggle’, but the midfielder is expected to be part of the travelling squad this weekend.

Brad Potts made his first appearance in a matchday squad since March on Tuesday night and he’ll be in contention again down in Oxford, as will Andrija Vukčević who came off the bench against Coventry City.

PNE are still without a number of first team players, including Ali McCann, Jamal Lewis, Lewis Gibson, Liam Lindsay, Milutin Osmajić, Robbie Brady and Theo Carroll.

The Hosts​

After finishing 17th in their first season back in the Championship last term, Oxford United head into the weekend sat two points and a position above the bottom three.

The U’s have picked up some positive results lately and especially on home turf, having recently beaten promotion contenders Ipswich Town and taken a point against high-flying Middlesbrough.

In the dugout they have a very experienced manager in Gary Rowett, who holds a remarkable unbeaten record against PNE which stretches to 15 matches.

Match Officials​
Referee: James Linington
Assistant Referees: Mark Stevens and Darren Williams
Fourth Official: Stephen Parkinson

James Linington, who refereed PNE's 2-0 victory over Charlton Athletic earlier this season, will take charge of Saturday's match.

So far this season, he has shown 29 yellow cards in nine matches.

Oxford United Football Club
The official website of Oxford United Football Club
www.oufc.co.uk www.oufc.co.uk

MYSTIC MACS FORM GUIDE

OXFORD 8 PNE 9

Suggests a close game

Alarm set for 4.30am for a trip to the car park, slowly gwtting our injured players back, mind you the boss has got another 3 match ban, there must be something in the Watford air that causes him to combust

https://www.fotmob.com/matches/preston-vs-oxford-utd/2eov9d#4825280:tab=lineup

Attendance: 10,379 (1,009 PNE fans).

Referee: James Linington.

Up at 4.30 am for this epic, do love Sky with their uncanny ability to reduce the level of sleep one gets, but count the dosh.
Highlight of the journey down seeing Deer at Norton Canes service station in the woodlands behind it.
The Kassam stdium built in the middle of nowhere soon to be turned into a retail establishment as they as thinking of moving home again, it's a delightful three sided ground with a great view of the car park from the away seats.
We took the points in what can be said to be an attritional game ad for the first time in 16 attempts managed to beat a side managed by Gary Rowett.
A slow pitch with a bobbly surface,, windy and a low sun didn't make for the easiest conditions to play in, against an Oxford side who play their own version of the beautiful game.
Started fairly well, looked the more likely, forced a series of corners, from one of them, Small receiving a clearence good cross to the back post, Storey heads home, delayed reaction as the ref didn't give it until he got the signal, having seen it the ball was miles over the line.
Then came the bombrdment, Vaulks long throw seemed to said every 30 seconds, all their corners were whipped in under the bar, Iversen had an interesting afternoon, looked uncertain when the ball was winging it's way in but shot shot stopping looked unbeatable.
Some goal mouths scrambles which we got away with and a good save by the Dane from a Brown header.
We had a three on one break at one time which we ballsed up. Led at the break.

Early second half effort by them, just wide and then probably the best bit of football from us all game, give and go betwee Devine and Dobbin inch perfect cross by Devine, Jebbo past kepper two up. Super goal.
Oxford reduced the arrears thanks to some hapless defending by us, ball given away, missed tackles and finally Armstong was megged by De Keersmaecker, who blitzed the ball in from the edge of the box.
Then it was back to Will Vaulks running to each side of the ground to launch missles into the box as with the first period caused us issues, a header clipped the top of the bar, and Iversen pulled off a TV save from a shot.
We did eventually get a bit of a grip of the game and eventually ran out winners
Third in the league, now for a blitz of games of Chrimbo.



MACCERS

Stuart McCall described the 2-1 win against Oxford United as a “great victory”, at a stadium which he feels is a difficult place to have success.

The North End assistant manager spoke pre-match and warned that, despite Oxford sitting 21st in the table, they’d picked up some positive results on home turf against some of the division’s top sides.

PNE left the Kassam Stadium with all three points, though, with Jordan Storey and Daniel Jebbison getting on the scoresheet. Brian De Keersmaecker pulled one back for the hosts and pushed for a leveller, but Paul Heckingbottom’s men held on to take the points.

Stuart said: “I think it was a great victory. It was a patchy performance, but you come away from home and you take it. There's parts of it we could have done better, but there was good positivity.

“You only have to look at Oxford's home record against all the big boys. They beat Ipswich here a couple of weeks ago, deservedly so, and drew against Leicester, Middlesbrough and Coventry. It's a tough place to come so the result was fantastic.

“I'm really pleased with our first goal because we go on about Thierry [Small]. He puts a lot of crosses in the box, sometimes he gets in areas and he crosses it from the wrong area, other times he puts fantastic balls in and that's a really good deep one. We asked Jordan to get around the back which he did.

“But the second goal, and we said at half-time, I think we can play more football with the players we've got in our team. It’s a lovely worked goal. A nice one-two with Alfie [Devine] and Dobbs (Lewis Dobbin), a ball across the box, and Jebbo being where he should be in between the sticks and it's a great finish.”

PNE didn’t have much success on the road last season, winning three away matches in the league, and the Oxford victory takes the current campaign’s tally to four.

More than 1,000 North End supporters were in the away end to watch their side take the three points which took the team to third in the Championship table.

Stuart said: “It's always good when you see the supporters celebrating with the players at the end of it because we know especially at this time of year, getting up early and getting here [isn’t easy].

“Listen, that's what football is for. It's for the supporters. We didn't give them much to cheer about on our travels last season, so we're doing it a little bit better this year and long may it continue.”

Oxford manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford:

"I probably chose the wrong formation for a home game. I felt as if I wanted to keep a little bit of continuity. Looking at the first half I definitely got that wrong so I will take responsibility for that.

"They've had two shots on target and scored two goals. You don't have to be a genius to look at those goals and say, 'were they completely avoidable?'

"We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. In the second half I asked the players to play with a little more freedom, like we tend to do when a couple of goals down, and we were better.

"We did create opportunities - we've had 20 shots on goal, eight on target. If we score and get an equaliser we go on to win the game, but we can't wait until we are two goals down to start playing."