Oxford 2-1 West Brom: Albion’s Winless Year Rolls On
Oxford blew the Championship relegation battle wide open this weekend with a crucial victory in a six-pointer over West Brom. The Baggies’ fortunes couldn’t change despite the sacking of the disastrous Eric Ramsay in midweek, and they are still left chasing a first win of 2026. Any more of this and they’ll be boing boinging their way into the third tier for the first time in over thirty years. With eleven to play, and only two relegation places left to fill, can Oxford drag themselves out of it from a position of certain doom? Or will West Brom have enough in the tank to limp over the line? Who knows, maybe Leicester will get their act together and both of these sides will face off in next season’s League One!
Oxford were widely considered the favourites to go down, Sheffield Wednesday excluded, in most people’s pre-season predictions. Despite the lack of expectation, it’s still been a season to forget for the U’s. After fairly comfortably cementing their Championship status last season at the first time of asking following promotion, they’ve found points and goals even harder to come by as the rest of the league around them has strengthened this year and left them behind.
With the financial disparity between Oxford and newly promoted Birmingham and Wrexham, plus Charlton making a fist of it too with a big-spending summer, it became increasingly apparent that the U’s were due another season of hardship if they didn’t arm themselves accordingly. Add to that the surprise emergence of Hull as a genuine promotion contender from the depths of the relegation battle last year, as well as Stoke, Preston and Derby all taking huge strides towards a battle for the play-off positions despite only securing survival on the final day of last campaign, Oxford’s peers had hoisted themselves upwards while the U’s simply maintained the course. Landmark signings such as Brian De Keersmaecker and the loan coup of the highly-coveted Will Lankshear went some way towards moving the dial, but the teams around them simply spent more, and spent wiser. With Gary Rowett unceremoniously sacked, the Matt Bloomfield era is well and truly underway, the result this weekend just his second victory in charge of Oxford since taking charge at the beginning of the new year.
Anything they can do, West Brom can do worse. They’re now on the hunt for their third permanent boss of the season after Ryan Mason and the now forever-derided Eric Ramsey both bit the dust. The Baggies haven’t won in any competition since the 29th of December, and defeat on the road in Oxford was enough to fully realise their relegation nightmare. Years of yo-yoing between the Premier League and the Championship are behind them and now they need to somehow find the fight in them to dig in and drag themselves out of a trouble they’ve not faced in years. Wednesday are down, so the fight to avoid the drop reads as such: Oxford are in 23rd with 32 points, Leicester round out the relegation zone on 34 and West Brom sit just above the trapdoor on a paltry 35 points. Above them, Blackburn and Portsmouth sit on a slightly more respectable 38 and 39 points respectively, so it’s looking increasingly likely that at least one of the teams, if not both, from this game will face League One football next season.
While they’re in free-fall, they have to get the basics right. Keep it tight early on, be competitive, and be first to every set-piece. If West Brom could manage that, their individual quality is enough to just maybe eke them out a hard-fought win. You know where this is going. 26 minutes on the clock, 2-0 Oxford, both from set-plays. It’s frustrating for the neutral to watch, never mind the Baggies fans.
Stanley Mills was on hand to divert a Jamie Donley corner into the net with a fantastic header, before Will Lankshear got on the end of Cameron Brannagan’s enticing free-kick to double the hosts’ lead. Oxford had scored just twice over their last seven games, and suddenly found themselves two goals to the good in under half an hour. Lankshear looked to be doing his best impression of a solid Championship striker, on the off chance that his parent club Spurs will be in the market for one in the summer. Never say never.
The visitors did manage to get themselves on the scoresheet, substitute Oliver Bostock scoring his first career goal with a deflected effort from range on the 33 minute mark to get his side back in the game. Uncharacteristically, Oxford held on. U’s ’keeper Jamie Cumming made some smart stops in the second half to deny West Brom an equaliser, but they’re the sort of saves you’d expect him to make. Oxford’s third and final shot on target came late in the game, but Adiomo Emakhu couldn’t place the ball either side of the goalkeeper to seal the game.
Oxford now have to follow it up in the coming weeks to seal their survival. A trip to Preston, followed by home games against Blackburn and Charlton, are all very winnable. If Bloomfield can get them into some form, then we could see a huge upset in the relegation battle.
West Brom have a horror run coming up. Sheffield United, Southampton and Hull are next, and they also have Wrexham, Millwall and Ipswich to come. If they’re going to get out of trouble, they need to do it fast. If they’re let themselves get buried under the weight of these superior teams, there could be no way back for the Baggies.
A relegation favourite vs the outside bet. Oxford handed themselves a huge lifeline in the race for Championship football next season, can they go on to capitalise?