{"id":557637,"date":"2020-07-13T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T04:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=557637"},"modified":"2020-07-11T13:45:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T17:45:16","slug":"oxford-united-face-wycombe-wanderers-in-league-one-playoff-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/13\/oxford-united-face-wycombe-wanderers-in-league-one-playoff-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford United Face Wycombe Wanderers in League One Playoff Final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/search\/Oxford+United\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oxford United<\/a> will play in their first-ever Football League playoff final on Monday when the U&#8217;s face Wycombe Wanderers in the League One playoff final at Wembley Stadium.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\">Oxford United Face Wycombe Wanderers in League One Playoff Final<\/h2>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">A Place in the Championship at Stake<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The winner will secure a place in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/category\/league-football\/championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Championship<\/a>. For Oxford, it has been a rollercoaster 21-years. In 1999, the U&#8217;s were relegated from the second tier before suffering another relegation two years later. Then, in 2006, the club suffered a further drop, this time into non-league.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Oxford returned to the Football League in 2010, before securing another promotion in 2016. They could make a return to the second tier 21-years after they last featured.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As for Wycombe, this season&#8217;s third-placed finish was their highest ever position, and they could reach the second tier for the first time in the clubs&#8217; history.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">The Playoffs and Season Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/07\/oxford-united-secure-playoff-final-spot-after-penalty-shootout-victory-against-portsmouth\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oxford edged past Portsmouth 5-4 on penalties after both games ended 1-1,<\/a> while the Chairboys eased past Fleetwood Town 6-3 on aggregate.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The U&#8217;s were third in the league when the season was suspended, just two points behind Rotherham United, but Wycombe came from eighth to third to move Oxford down one place as a result of the points per game system used to decide the conclusion of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Oxford were the division&#8217;s in-form team before the season was suspended, winning their last five games in succession. As for Wycombe, they lost three and won three of their last six.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">Team News, Previous Meetings and Prediction<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The U&#8217;s have no new injury concerns ahead of the match. <a href=\"https:\/\/oxford.vitalfootball.co.uk\/all-clear-in-penultimate-round-of-testing\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">They also received an all-clear in their latest round of coronavirus testing.<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/02\/matty-taylor-hoping-to-stay-with-oxford-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matty Taylor<\/a>, the U&#8217;s top scorer with 17 goals in all competitions, started on the bench for the second leg against Pompey but should be fit enough to start.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Meanwhile, Oxford skipper <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/ea49ad8f\/John-Mousinho\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Mousinho<\/a> was part of the Wycombe side that won promotion from League Two 11 years ago.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Left-back <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/dcb17ca5\/Adebayo-Akinfenwa\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Jacobson<\/a> is the Chairboys&#8217; top scorer with 11, while striker <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/590a3ff2\/Joe-Jacobson\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adebayo Akinfenwa<\/a> has ten. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/387d06b2\/Fred-Onyedinma\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fred Onyedinma<\/a> netted twice in their second leg against the Cod Army, taking his tally to six.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The two sides have only met once this season. <a href=\"https:\/\/oxford.vitalfootball.co.uk\/match-report-league-one-oxford-united-1-0-wycombe-wanderers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Henry netted the winner in a 1-0 victory at the Kassam Stadium<\/a>, which saw Akinfenwa dismissed in the first half.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The U&#8217;s are unbeaten in their last five meetings between the two sides, winning four. The first win of that run came on the final day of the <a href=\"https:\/\/oxford.vitalfootball.co.uk\/where-are-they-now-may-7-2016-oxford-united-3-0-wycombe-wanderers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2015\/16 season as the U&#8217;s secured promotion to League One with a 3-0 victory.<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Prediction: Oxford United 2-0 Wycombe Wanderers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"2ZGsfd73T3BbmRT3Ngdrww\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1226608040\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'2ZGsfd73T3BbmRT3Ngdrww',sig:'nnSMNZjrb3aeLF2_GIPbPq0XDxD-YPpIOdjEb_UaHbI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1226608040',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oxford United will play in their first-ever Football League playoff final on Monday when the U&#8217;s face Wycombe Wanderers in the League One playoff final at Wembley Stadium. Oxford United Face Wycombe Wanderers in League One Playoff Final A Place in the Championship at Stake The winner will secure a place in the Championship. For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":557673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,33,29,32,2,1828,30],"tags":[5904,166,188,5992,243,457,136,1761],"class_list":["post-557637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league12","category-championship","category-editorials","category-league-football","category-featured","category-fixtures","category-news","tag-gareth-ainsworth","tag-karl-robinson","tag-league-one","tag-league-one-playoff-final","tag-oxford-united","tag-wembley-stadium","tag-world-football","tag-wycombe-wanderers"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}