Sunday 15th February 2026
Oxford United v Sunderland
FA Cup Fourth Round
Kassam Stadium Kick-Off: 14:00
Tickets & Match Coverage
Tickets: Tickets are sold out.
TV/Stream:
Full live match coverage is available via Discovery+.Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)
Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.sbnation.com!
The build-up…
Ok, let’s get this said straight out of the gate – the last time we knocked out Oxford United in the fourth
round of the FA Cup, we reached the final. Just saying.
We have to go back 34 years (wow, time flies by the way) to February 1992, when Malcolm Crosby’s side had brushed aside Port Vale in the third round. They were handed a trip to the Manor Ground to take on Brian Horton’s Oxford side, which had a certain Andy Melville at the heart of the defence.
In terms of the game, there is potentially a lesson ahead of today’s tie, as the Lads raced into a two-goal lead before the half hour and were three up before the hour mark, but two goals in the last couple of minutes made the final stages more nervy than we’d have liked.
If our third round tie against Everton was anything to go by, we’re likely to go out with a stronger starting XI, we possibly can – but was that purely because the opposition was Everton? Will Regis Le Bris gamble a bit by shuffling his pack for today’s fixture, or will the fact that we have a full week of rest ahead of the Fulham game mean he doesn’t have to?
All eyes will be on the team sheet to find out, because with the league season shaping up as it is, we have nothing to lose in chasing a decent run in the cup.
Gary Rowett’s Oxford are fighting tooth and nail to remain in the Championship. If you look at the fact they are battling it out with the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Leicester City, West Bromwich Albion – and let’s not forget Sheffield Wednesday, who hope to reach positive numbers in their points tally before the season is out – they are potentially punching above their weight.
Last season was their first in the second tier since they were relegated in 1998-99, and just seven years after that, they dropped out of the Football League altogether. But after a quarter of a century, they were back and did a good job of staying up with Rowett taking the job on from Des Buckingham just over a year ago, to steer them into a 17th-place finish.
Despite losing on our last visit to the Kassam Stadium, our record there is pretty good. In a run stretching back to April 1990, we’ve lost only twice in thirteen visits (including defeat via penalty shoot-out in the League Cup in 2019, which is counted as a draw in all of that). Hopefully, Regis and a few of the Lads who remain will be out for a little revenge for that 2-0 defeat there last April.
They required a penalty shoot-out at MK Dons in the previous round, where they were expected to win, but now the tables have turned, and they go into today’s tie as underdogs, which, based on our season of feeling like that, potentially makes them more dangerous.
The betting…
The bookies have the Lads at 3/4 to win the game, while Oxford are priced at 16/5, and the draw is 5/2.
Head to head… at Oxford
(All competitions)
- Sunderland wins: 9
- Draws: 6
- Oxford United wins: 6
- Sunderland goals: 23
- Oxford United goals: 24
Last time we met… at the Kassam Stadium
Saturday 26th April 2025
Championship
Oxford United 2-0 Sunderland
[Nelson 29’, Helik 48’]
Sunderland: Patterson, Hume, Mepham, O’Nien, Hjelde (Cirkin), Neil (Samed), Bellingham, Roberts (Watson), Rigg, Le Fee (Browne), Isidor Substitutes not used: Moore, Anderson, Seelt, H. Jones, Aleksic
Oxford United: Cumming, Long (Avest), Leigh (Moore), Vaulks, Helik, Nelson, Placheta (Phillips), Brannagan, Harris (Bennett), Rodrigues (Matos), Goodrham Substitutes not used: Ingram, McEachran, Mills, Romeny
Attendance: 11,431
Prediction…
Oxford United 0-2 Sunderland
I’m thinking nothing spectacular, nothing nervy – just a professional performance that does what we need and puts us in the hat for the fifth round.
