League One Play Off Second Leg Preview: Blackpool v Oxford United

Oxford will travel to Blackpool tonight to try and overturn a 3-0 deficit from the first leg.

First Leg Recap:

Blackpool managed to win 3-0 at the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday. The first half saw Oliver Turton and Elliot Simms score to give Blackpool a two goal lead. Simms added to his tally in the second half to give Blackpool control of the tie.

Team News

Blackpool are expected to have a similar squad that was named for the first leg available to them.

Cameron Brannagan and Sam Winnall limped off for Oxford in the first leg with hamstring problems and are doubtful for tonight. Sam Long is unavailable, though Rob Hall and Liam Kelly could feature. John Mousinho and Marcus McGuane are both long term absentees.

The Manager’s Views

Blackpool manager Neil Critchley is looking for a similar performance to the first leg tonight and said that the players remain focused. Critchley told the Blackpool website “We’ve got enough experience in the dressing room and in the coaching staff to ensure there’s absolute focus, and we know we need to show our commitment on the pitch on Friday night.”

Karl Robinson has not given up on the play-offs yet. Robinson told iFollow “So now we have a very difficult job on Friday night, but we don’t mind being written off. We were written off after ten games when we were bottom of the league, we were written off again when we lost to Sunderland and Accrington at Easter, and now people have written us off once again after Tuesday. We’ll see.”

Final Thoughts

Blackpool will look to be professional and to manage the game well to reach the play-off final, while Oxford will try and pull off a miracle and will have to take risks, so the game should involve a few goals.