Blackburn vs Oxford United Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

As Wigan failed to get the better of AFC Wimbledon last weekend, Blackburn had a ginormous opportunity to reach the summit of League One, but Rovers were unable to walk through the door left open by the team who will now almost certainly be crowned champions on Saturday evening. As they lost 1-0 away at Charlton last time out, Blackburn appear to have surrendered the title, though they’re heading up, so all is not lost.

After an up and down season, Oxford will finish in a rather lowly 15^th position, though they could hardly have hoped for better given their inconsistency. At times, the U’s have looked like a side capable of challenging for the play-offs, but they’ve also performed like a team at the wrong end of the table on far too many occasions, especially from a defensive point of view.

Given their overall home record this season; won 14, drawn six, lost just two, scored 44 and conceded 19, Blackburn will be backing themselves to come out on top on Saturday, that’s for sure. However, as good as they’ve been at home this season (and they have been very good), Rovers haven’t always defended amazingly well against the lesser teams. Against bottom-half teams, Blackburn have tended to adopt a more cavalier approach. Such tactics have paid dividends offensively, but they’ve also led to Mowbray’s men being regularly caught out at the back.

Blackburn have indeed got forward against anyone and everyone, especially at home, but they’ve been particularly attack-minded against the lesser teams. In doing so, Rovers have scored a more than respectable 20 goals in 11 matches against teams currently in the bottom half, though they’ve continued to be undone defensively in such matches. In 11 games against bottom-half teams, Rovers have recorded just three clean sheets.

Like Blackburn, Oxford are a side who will try to get forward, they’re just very poor at the back. With this being the final match of the season, and with Oxford being safe, the visitors should have a go at Ewood Park on Saturday. They’ll know that keeping out a team who’ve scored 95 goals in 45 matches is likely to prove beyond them, but they’ll surely fancy themselves to get involved offensively.

The visitors come here off the back of a very pleasing attacking performance against Rochdale last time out. On that occasion, Karl Robinson’s side looked both creative and productive when getting into attacking areas. A similar performance at Ewood Park would likely see them cause Blackburn a few problems.

All in all, Blackburn should have more than enough about them offensively to come out on top in this match, though given both their record in similar games and the fact that Oxford are more than capable of getting at teams, they aren’t fancied to do so in simple, low-key fashion. At the prices, both ‘Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score’ and ‘Blackburn to Win & Both Teams to Score’ stand out.