Home Match Day Thread 28/11/2025 - MDT: OUFC v Ipswich Town

[Northstandboy]

 

[Northstandboy]

Match Referee: Matthew Donohue
Kassam Stadium
Friday 28th Nov 2025 @ 2000

 

[Barbadosyellow]

Hoping for the performance of the season to lift us out of the relegation zone after just 48 hours

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Let's have it! I'm well up for tonight and any subsequent relegation scrap to prove those who wrote us off last season and again this season very wrong. I do not want those who podcast from their mum's spare room in full kit to be proven right.

One goal in it either way tonight I reckon.

Bring your singing voices and don't forget to download the app!

 

[EastStandKieran]

Since losing to Middlesbrough Ipswich have scored 10 goals in their last 3 away games 4 at QPR 4 at Swansea and 2 at hull they also don't concede many goals . Ipswich like stoke ( before the 0-3) have never won a league game in Oxford I think they will tonight

1-3

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Since losing to Middlesbrough Ipswich have scored 10 goals in their last 3 away games 4 at QPR 4 at Swansea and 2 at hull they also don't concede many goals . Ipswich like stoke ( before the 0-3) have never won a league game in Oxford I think they will tonight

1-3

Hope we prove you wrong.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

Southend-born Matthew Donohue is the referee for tonight’s clash with Ipswich Town in OX4.The Manchester FA official moved to the North West to work as a teacher in the Greater Manchester area around ten years ago.

 

[EastStandKieran]

Hope we prove you wrong.

I hope the boys prove me wrong aswel

 

[TobyDavis34]

I don't know anything anymore.

Could be any starting lineup.

Cumming
HTA Helik Long Currie
Vaulks BDK
Mills Larris Krastev
Lankshear

Here's my prediction. Let's see!

Hope we get something from this or we be relegation zoning

 

[werthersoriginal]

I’m seeing either 0-4 or 1-0. No idea of the lineup though i wouldn’t mind HTA on the wing again, he’s one of our better players.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

 

[TailsWeWin]

Is that the energy you didn’t use on Tuesday, Michal?

 

[Symp59]

He played well Tuesday, hopefully even better tonight, he's going to have too ,tough ask i would take a draw but we do need to start winning very ,very soon ,or the January window won't matter much.

 

[Swinny]

Anything like the 'Boro game would have been acceptable - but feels like Tuesday night has left us needing more from this than we may be able to get.

Not going to predict a score...because I wouldn't even attempt to predict the line-up!

Start Davies - do not risk Brown if even a slight doubt!

 

[Sarge]

its matchday, footy tonight, lets get a home win , 2-1

 

[SuffolkingBlue]

Kieran McKenna studied for his UEFA Pro Licence alongside U’s manager Gary Rowett.

“It’s a quick turnaround, which is a challenge in itself. Going there on a Friday night is going to be tough.

“We’ve experience of going to Oxford away, we know it’s a really tough ground to go to.

“Gary Rowett’s a really experienced manager and his teams always have a real toughness and a resilience and work hard, which makes them really difficult to play against, so we’re expecting a big challenge on Friday night.

“We have to recover as quickly as we can and go there with a big, big attitude to show the qualities that we’re going to need to get the result.”

He added: “They’d want to have a few more points on the board, but they’re in and around it along with all the other tough teams in the Championship.

“You can guarantee what you’re going to get from an Oxford team away from home and you know what you’re going to get from a Gary Rowett team away from home.

“They’re a really hard-working side, they play with good intensity, they really try and test you defensively and they’re going to try and make the game really difficult for us.

“We’ll give the game full respect, we’ll recover as well as we can now. Lots of travelling to do to get home and to get back there, but we’ll make sure that by Friday night we’re ready for the battle and ready to play as well as we can.”

Reflecting on how difficult the short Tuesday-Friday gap between away fixtures might be to cope with, McKenna added: “It’s pretty unusual. I presume it’s going to be tough because I’ve not done it before. It feels a little bit like two midweek games, to be honest.

“It’s not a turnaround I’ve had before. Of course, time-wise we’ve played two in this [time period] but when it’s Tuesday night away and a Friday night away, that’s tough, there’s no two ways about it.

“We’ll have to see how the group recovers tonight, make some decisions going into Friday night and I’ll trust that everyone will do everything they can to recover as well as they can and the group that we start with and that we have on the bench will be fully motivated to do well.”

Having failed to win their first four Championship away games, the Blues have now won their last three, scoring 10 goals, while drawing their two most recent matches at Portman Road.

“These things flip round in football and sometimes it goes in cycles and you can delve too deeply into analysing it,” McKenna added.

“I told the group after [the 0-0 home draw with Wrexham on] Saturday that I think in the last four homes games we’ve had 80-plus shots, two goals. Away games, we’ve 23 shots and eight goals in the last two before [Hull]. You can end up overanalysing it.

“There are qualities that you need to show away from home, and we’re starting to show those more.

“For sure, teams are presenting us with a different challenge at Portman Road that we need to keep working on to improve how we rise to, but the games away from home are always really, really tough and Friday under the lights away to Oxford is certainly one in that category.”

McKenna was reminded of the Blues’ last visit to the Kassam Stadium in League One almost three years ago, a game played in heavy fog, the U’s netting a winner after both managers had asked for the game to be abandoned.

“That’s one of those days which will always stick in the memory, not what was going on on the pitch because we couldn’t see very much of it, but the whole ordeal,” McKenna recalled.

“I think certainly [CEO and chairman] Mark Ashton knows that that’s one never to mention to me because it’s still a bit of a sore topic.

“But it’s a lifetime ago really, and the weather forecast looks alright for Friday night, so it should be a different game.”

 

[Foley]

Is that the energy you didn’t use on Tuesday, Michal?

Not sure the back 4 didn't show energy?
I thought they were very good ( throwing themselves in front of shots), and without them we would gavd been well beaten

 

[unification]

I can’t see us getting anything from this if we play like how we did midweek. However, play like we did against Boro and you never know.

Heart says 1-1, head says 0-2.

 

[Osleroad]

Not sure about light displays - get that fog machine on overdrive.

 

[yellowbow]

I haven’t read the article because it’s in the fail but Rowett has apparently singled Sparky out for praise. Could he be in possession of the CF shirt again now?

 

[JOHN BOY]

I haven’t read the article because it’s in the fail but Rowett has apparently singled Sparky out for praise. Could he be in possession of the CF shirt again now?

Surely he won't start him again.Dont thi nk that would be a very popular decision.

 

[yellowbow]

Surely he won't start him again.Dont thi nk that would be a very popular decision.

I would hope it’ll be Lankshear but it’s starting to hint of Harris moving above Prelec in the pecking order

 

[Stranger]

Surely he won't start him again.Dont thi nk that would be a very popular decision.

Hopefully the manager picks the team based on what he feels is the right selection, not what will or won't be popular with the fans.

Having said that, I also hope that Sparky doesn't start

 

[unification]

Not sure about light displays - get that fog machine on overdrive.

I believe it was KR’s last win as manager.



Ludicrous that the game was finished.

 

[mooro]

To be fair to Ipswich, an away game on a Friday night after a Tuesday night trip to Hull is not an ideal schedule (we're not happy playing at home on a Friday after a trip to Norwich) - though I guess their squad is better placed to cope.

Agree no need to risk rushing brown back when we have Davies to come in.

Do we use HTA to bolster the midfield from the right or move inside or move him to RB at ask young Sam to return to his breakthrough role in DM?

 

[Stranger]

I believe it was KR’s last win as manager.



Ludicrous that the game was finished.

I believe that the criteria for games affected by fog is that the referee, when standing on the halfway line, has to be able to see both sets of goalposts. Presumably he could

 

[SteMerritt]

I believe that the criteria for games affected by fog is that the referee, when standing on the halfway line, has to be able to see both sets of goalposts. Presumably he could

It wasn't as bad as the Wimbledon game in '83 from my memory. Or the Bristol City (I think it was) one in the 90s, but then again I guess it could be that because I was in the LRT for the Manor Games whereas I was in the North for the Ipswich game, being side-on probably made it look a bit better.

 

[Kamal]

I believe it was KR’s last win as manager.



Ludicrous that the game was finished.

Wasn't there a Tuesday night home game against Ipswich in 2019/2020 that got postponed due to heavy rain as well?

 

[OUFCGav]

It wasn't as bad as the Wimbledon game in '83 from my memory. Or the Bristol City (I think it was) one in the 90s, but then again I guess it could be that because I was in the LRT for the Manor Games whereas I was in the North for the Ipswich game, being side-on probably made it look a bit better.

Wimbledon 83 was bonkers. You had absolutely no clue what was happening in the other 1/2 from either end.

 

[Barbadosyellow]

Wasn't there a Tuesday night home game against Ipswich in 2019/2020 that got postponed due to heavy rain as well?

I think it was restarted after about 15 minutes

 

[TailsWeWin]

Thanks for the video. I couldn’t see much of that from my seat towards the back of the East Stand!