Macclesfield vs Oxford United Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Macclesfield advanced to this stage of the competition by beating League One opposition, on the road at that, in the last round and the hosts will no doubt come into this match with plenty of confidence for doing so. Similarly, Oxford made it into the second round by comfortably beating non-league opposition last time out and will no doubt fancy themselves to do the same again.

At odds of 13/10, the bet to go for here is ‘Macclesfield Win/Draw Double Chance’. The hosts are in decent form right now and will be able to draw on the experience on beating out opposition of this calibre in the last round.

In truth, the visitors are enjoying an up and down sort of season. At times they’ve looked useful, but at others they’ve looked somewhat all over the place. Playing on the road has been a problem for Oxford and they could easily struggle here in a pressurised cup tie. Although league form can easily mean nothing in these sort of ties, the away side have won just once away from home in League One this season and have found goals pretty hard to come by. Against a National league side who’ve been decent at the back at home they could struggle once more.

The hosts in front of their own fans, against higher level opposition, will be right up for this match and, as has been the case so many times in the FA Cup, this can be massive. The National League side have kept four clean sheets on their own patch this season, plus they shutout Walsall in the first round.

It is fancied that if the hosts are capable of once again keeping things tight at the back then the visitors might find it hard to create much and as a result the pressure could start to mount. With this in mind, it would be no surprise if Macclesfield took advantage on the counter and so backing the hosts to, at the very least, force a replay looks a good option here.