[themaclad]

Oxford United
Deepdale 15.00hrs 4/1/2025

https://www.oufc.co.uk/

MANAGER



Gary Rowett (born 6 March 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who is head coach of EFL Championship club Oxford United.

As a player, he was a defender, and played in the Premier League for Everton, Derby County, Leicester City and Charlton Athletic. He also played in the Football League for Cambridge United, Blackpool, Birmingham City and Burton Albion. His professional career ended in 2004, through a knee injury.

In May 2009, he was appointed assistant manager to Paul Peschisolido at Burton, and took over as manager in 2012. He was appointed the manager of Birmingham City in October 2014 and served until December 2016. He became Derby County manager in March 2017, and joined Stoke City in May 2018. After failing to mount a promotion challenge, he was sacked in January 2019 and was appointed manager of Millwall that October, before leaving by mutual consent four years later. He rejoined Birmingham City in March 2024 as interim manager until the end of the season. In December 2024, he joined Oxford United.

WE HAVE NEVER BEATEN A GARY ROWETT TEAM

HOT SHOTS SORT OFF



LAST TIME OUT





FORM GUIDE

PNE 7 OXFORD 11

OTHER CHAMPO STUFF




The Fitness Test

There were a few players struggling with illness during the week, including Andrew Hughes who missed the defeat to West Brom, so they will need to be assessed ahead of Saturday.

Brad Potts has been absent for the previous two fixtures through injury and is likely to be sidelined again this weekend, as is Robbie Brady who’s suffered a rib injury.

Ryan Ledson came off the bench in the last outing and got himself on the scoresheet, so he’ll be hoping to force his way into the starting XI against his former employers.

The U’s


Oxford United recently made the decision to part ways with their promotion-winning head coach Des Buckingham and in his place came Gary Rowett.

That’s a change which has already worked wonders for the U’s who have won three matches in a row and they now find themselves five points clear of the drop.

Rowett has unsurprisingly been pleased with the results he’s managed to get out of his team so far and he’ll be hoping for more of the same at Deepdale where he’s never lost as a manager.

Referee: Ben Toner
Assistant Referee: Mark Russell
Assistant Referee: Sam Lewis
Fourth Official: Thomas Kirk

Ben Toner will referee his first ever North End fixture on Saturday.

Toner, who has been refereeing in the EFL since 2015, has shown 113 yellow cards and four reds in 22 matches so far this season.

MACS VIEW

New defender signed after Wednesday no surprise, tough game this against Oxford three wins on the bounce for the side whose ground has one end a car park.
Be interesting to see who doesn't play tomorrow

[themaclad]

Preston North End 1 Keane Oxford United 1 Rodrigues

Attendance: 14,749 (1,272 Oxford United fans).

Referee: Mr B Toner.



A frustrating afternoon to say the least, this was two points dropped against an Oxford side who offered little during the game apart from a couple of tame shots and a Will Vaulks free kick which was defelected narrowly wide near the end, if that had gone in they would have gone home with all three points.
Understandibly there was frustration amongst the home support and probably obvious some of this side have possibly reached the end of the line.
For 20 minutes we were really good creating chances however United had a keeper Cumming who knew what he was doing, two decent saves from KKH and Greenwood, however he should have had no chnace after Greenwood broke down the left cut towards the six yard box, squared the ball back to Keane who promptly put the ball into the Oxford support in the Kop.
Then came the goal, the new fangled way of playing the ball out from the back using your goalkeeper as a sweeper type of player is a nonsense, a blunderis always around the corner and so it proved today, a few passes across the box and Woodman majestically passed it to United's Rodriguez 12 yars out, he scored.
The irony of the mistake was that we had nearly cocked up twice before and both led to us having dangerous attacks, anyway 1 down and now Oxford could sit deep with two blocks of five and wait for our now ponderous play to break them down.
Confidence drained and it was painful to watch.
Virtually all one way in the second period although we created nothing much to speak off, we upped the tempo, changes in personal, came and then for once we got to the deadball line, Holmes delivered a perfect ball to the back stick, Keane headed in, the goal came at the right time as Keane was on the verge of being subbed.
Try as we might couldn't break them down and they left with a point.
Gary Rowett still unbetaen against us

15-Love: Rowett's remarkable run against Preston
It's one thing for teams to claim bragging rights against other teams on a run of form, but Rowett can now boast 15 games without defeat against Preston while at the helm of five different teams, winning eight and drawing seven.

December 2015: Birmingham 1-1 Preston

April 2016: Birmingham 2-2 Preston

September 2016: Birmingham 2-2 Preston

August 2017: Derby 1-0 Preston

April 2018: Preston 0-1 Derby

August 2018: Preston 2-2 Stoke

February 2020: Preston 0-1 Millwall

October 2020: Preston 0-2 Millwall

March 2021: Millwall 2-1 Preston

February 2022: Millwall 0-0 Preston

April 2022: Preston 1-1 Millwall

November 2022: Preston 2-4 Millwall

April 2023: Millwall 2-0 Preston

April 2024: Birmingham 1-0 Preston

January 2025: Preston 1-1 Oxford

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom was frustrated his side didn’t take their chances in the early stages of the 1-1 draw against Oxford United.

North End were the side well on top in the opening exchanges of the first home match of 2025, with chances falling to Sam Greenwood, Will Keane and Kaine Kesler-Hayden.

None of them resulted in the opening goal, but at the other end the visitors managed to make the breakthrough after capitalising on a mistake at the back in the 21st minute.

Keane netted from close range in the 69th minute to earn his side a point, in a match which PNE dominated for large stages.


Reflecting on the action, Hecky said: “I think everyone's using the same word: frustrated. I’ve had to remind everyone in there – staff, players, everyone I've seen that we've not lost the game.

“Gary [Rowett] has set his Oxford team up really well, no surprise there. They've been giving nothing away and the first half an hour, all three teams that they’ve played have not created and pulled them about like we did. So for us to fall behind at that moment is really frustrating.

“We spoke to the players at half-time, saying we'd not done anything wrong. We needed to maybe move the ball slightly quicker across the back, just in order to try and move them about and find the space.

“It's the same that we’ve spoken about before. When you're on top or when you're creating chances, you've got to take them, and then second half they denied the space even more.

“They went to a five and sank even deeper, so there was less space in behind. We had to keep being brave, take the ball and try and play our way in, which means you're going to lose the ball more, but we had to create good chances like we did for the goal, which was a really good goal.”


It was Oxford’s first visit to Deepdale since 2000 and they arrived in good form, having won their last three Championship matches.

They had to defend for the most part at Deepdale, although managed to restrict PNE to just the one goal, with the Lilywhites unable to build on Keane’s equaliser 20 minutes from time.

Hecky said: “You have to block out all the frustration and the noise and remain focused because you wouldn't change too much about the first-half performance, other than scoring three of those 13 shots we had, and their one shot was something we gifted to them.

“You're never going to be as dominant as that. However, we've had too many times where we have been on top and not been clinical enough, and it's something we know. We understand that. It ultimately takes away from your points total come the end of the season.”

Oxford United manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford:

"After three very good performances, to come here today and not play well and get a point I think is the best result of the four, and the one I am the most proud of.

"It is not an easy place to come, and we showed character and dug in. We just need to show a little bit more quality.

"Preston started the game very well and I thought we looked a bit leggy physically. We were fortunate to go 1-0 up at half time, but it was a really well worked goal. We have tried to be more aggressive, and Ruben has taken his chance really well.

"We had to tweak at half-time, I think the game would have been theirs if we had waited to do something. I thought we might have been able to defend the ball that led to the goal but we didn't.

[themaclad]

[talkSAFT]

Your goalie made up for it at the end.

[themaclad]

Dubious