Another bumper week of action in the Sky Bet Championship gets underway on Friday night when play-off chasers Norwich City welcome Oxford United to Carrow Road for a match which suddenly feels big for both sides.
Norwich faded away from the top six a month or so ago but are showing signs of catching them again while Oxford are starting to look over their shoulders again after pulling away from the relegation zone recently so there is plenty at stake here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off at Carrow Road.
Norwich City
Norwich City were going along acceptably in the earlier part of the season but then injuries came along and the schedule took a turn for the worse and they had a period where they struggled but with personnel coming back they look like they have come out of that the other side and will be looking for a big final quarter of the campaign to push for a second successive top six finish. After failing in the play-offs last term, they will be eager to get another shot at them.
Norwich will certainly be pleased that they are at home in this match. Eight of their 12 wins have come at Carrow Road this season including in three of their last five on home soil and there is a certain comfort about them here. In Borja Sainz they still have the top scorer in the division even though he hasn’t scored since the end of November. It has been the form of Josh Sargent, one of those back from injury, which has given the Canaries the quality to turn their form around.
Oxford United
The Oxford United season so far has been a very up and down tale. The first quarter of the matches that they have played were very positive but then they hit a bit of a struggle in the second section when injuries hit them hard too. They came out of that with a great run when they got the new manager bounce under Gary Rowett but that has subsided in recent times and their form going into this match is as low as it has been at any stage in the campaign.
Oxford go into the match without a win in their last seven matches and they are having a particularly tough time of it on the road where the only goal they have scored in their last four road trips was an own goal for Burnley in a 1-0 loss there. It is now six away matches without a win for the U’s and if they are not careful they could yet be reeled in by the bottom three so they will be keen to get out of this slump this week to feel better about themselves going into the international break.
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Team News
Johannes Hoff Thorup confirmed in his press conference that Lewis Dobbin and Ben Chrisene will miss the rest of the season having sustained injuries against Blackburn Rovers last time out. Callum Doyle returns from suspension but the game is likely to come too soon for Kenny McLean.
Gary Rowett admitted that the Oxford quartet of Ben Nelson, Greg Leigh, Tom Bradshaw and Joe Bennett are all back in training but the match is going to come too soon for any of them while Sikiri Dembele will be eyeing up a starting role.
Betting
I’m a little bit surprised that the under is the favourite on the 2.5 goal line here. I guess that is down to Oxford United having not scored in their last four away from home but Norwich City have only kept one clean sheet in their last 10 matches in the Championship and you would imagine that at some point Oxford will come good goals wise on their travels. Although they haven’t scored in four away from home, two of those were at Burnley and West Brom, the best and fourth best defences in the league respectively.
Norwich are nothing like as watertight so there has to be a good feeling for Oxford when they go forward here but Coventry have just put three past Gary Rowett’s men and in two of the last four matches here at Carrow Road, Norwich have scored four and five. Matches on this ground this season average 3.76 goals and I don’t think it is asking too much with the attacking talent on the pitch for another three to come along, even if the hosts need to score them all.
Tips
Back Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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