Preview: Oxford United vs Sheffield Wednesday - prediction, team news, lineups

Needing wins from their last two games to stand a chance of escaping the bottom three of the Championship table, Oxford United will welcome Sheffield Wednesday to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday in the penultimate round of fixtures.

The hosts sit six points adrift of safety with six left to play for following back-to-back defeats, while their visitors have two remaining chances to get out of negative points before their drop to League One.

Match preview

Oxford United head into the weekend needing a victory to stand a chance of staying in the fight for Championship survival for the final day of the season.

In their second term in England's second tier, the U's have consistently fought at the bottom end of the division and now find themselves six points adrift, having picked up 44 from their 44 games, winning 10 and losing 20 of those with only Saturday's visitors scoring fewer than their 41 goals.

Matt Bloomfield's side moved within touching distance of safety with consecutive draws and a home victory over Watford in early April, but they have since been cut adrift again following a pair of 1-0 defeats.

After leaving Derby County empty-handed last weekend, with Jaydon Banel's first-half goal sealing the points for the hosts, they hosted Wrexham midweek and again fell short, as Josh Windass fired the visitors to a 1-0 win with a 40th-minute opener.

Now sitting six points behind 21st-placed Charlton Athletic with two games remaining, Oxford United know that they will only stay up if they can win both of their remaining matches and Charlton lose both of theirs.

Their visitors, meanwhile, make the trip to the Kassam Stadium in search of just a second win of a difficult Championship campaign, in which they have faced off-pitch issues from the outset.

Sheffield Wednesday entered administration in October, triggering deductions totalling 18 points, and they have failed to overcome that, sitting on -3 with two games remaining having won just once and lost 31 of their 44 matches.

The Owls have failed to compete at either end of the pitch, scoring a league-low tally of 26 goals and conceding a league-high 84, while they head into the weekend in the midst of the longest winless run in football league history, now 39 games in all competitions dating back to September.

On the back of a run of three straight draws including with champions Coventry City, Henrik Pedersen's side visited Middlesbrough on Wednesday but failed to make it four games unbeaten, instead suffering a 1-0 defeat at the Riverside Stadium as Morgan Whittaker's 11th-minute goal made the only difference.

Now sitting on -3 points with two games remaining before their drop to League One and the hopes of a fresh start under new ownership, Sheffield Wednesday will bid to end their long wait for a Championship victory on Saturday.

Oxford United Championship form:

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Sheffield Wednesday Championship form:

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Team News

Oxford United will remain without Brian De Keersmaecker, Greg Leigh, Przemyslaw Placheta and Tyler Goodrham on Saturday due to ongoing injuries.

Will Lankshear will hope to again lead the line, with Myles Peart-Harris, Stanley Mills, Jamie Donley, Mark Harris and Aidomo Emakhu all competing to join him.

Elsewhere, Cameron Brannagan remains a key man in midfield, while Will Vaulks will compete to return to the engine room from the start in place of either Jamie McDonnell or Yunus Konak.

Sheffield Wednesday face injury issues of their own, with Svante Ingelsson and Joel Ndala having missed out in recent weeks, joining Ike Ugbo, Di'Shon Bernard, Liam Cooper and George Brown in the treatment room.

Jamal Lowe will compete to start in attack, after Jerry Yates and Charlie McNeill got the nod in midweek, while Nathaniel Chalobah should come back into the midfield from the outset.

First-choice goalkeeper Pierce Charles also missed the trip to Middlesbrough with a knock, and if he is not deemed fit to feature at the weekend then Murphy Cooper will continue between the sticks.

Oxford United possible starting lineup:

Cumming; Long, Helik, Brown, Spencer; Konak, Vaulks; Mills, Brannagan, Donley; Lankshear

Sheffield Wednesday possible starting lineup:

Cooper; Palmer, Otegbayo, M Lowe; Fusire, Heskey, Chalobah, Thornton, Adaramola; Yates, J Lowe

We say: Oxford United 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday

Needing a victory to stand any chance of taking their survival hopes into the final day, we back Oxford United to take all three points at home to a depleted Sheffield Wednesday on the back of a gruelling midweek test at Middlesbrough.

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