Oxford United vs Luton Town Prediction: Can Rowett keep up sparkling form?

Oxford United maintained their impressive run of form with a 1-0 home win over Blackburn, and they will look to make it back-to-back wins at the Kassam Stadium when they welcome Luton Town on Tuesday night (19:45, Sky Sports+). 

Luton are at the start of a new era under Matt Bloomfield and they began life with a 0-0 draw at home to Preston North End, but that result saw them drop to 23rd in the league table. Below you can find my Oxford United vs Luton Town prediction featuring betting tips and team news. 

Team News

There’s a bit of transfer talk surrounding Oxford winger Tyler Goodrham who has caught the eye this season with a string of impressive performances. He’s suspended and will miss this fixture, only adding fuel to the fire in terms of transfer rumours. 

Owen Dale is out injured until February, while Ben Nelson and Elliott Moore are also sidelined. However, new signings Michal Helik and Tom Bradshaw could both start, after the former Huddersfield centre-back kept a clean sheet in his first appearance for his new club. Bradshaw will be in competition with Mark Harris to lead the line from the off, while Przemyslaw Placheta and Siriki Dembele are likely to occupy the wide positions in midfield once more. 

Bloomfield has work to do with his ailing squad, with defensive options Tom Lockyer, Alfie Doughty, Reece Burke and Teden Mengi all still sidelined. Mark McGuinness and Tom Holmes are likely to continue at the heart of the defence, with Amari’i Bell and Daiki Hashioka used in wider defensive positions. 

Shandon Baptiste is also sidelined so the new boss may choose to build on the midfield three of Marvelous Nakamba, Tom Krauss and Jordan Clark who all started against Preston. January arrival Isiah Jones is likely to support Carlton Morris from the right-hand side, although Elijah Adebayo will want to be given more minutes to prove his worth. 

Oxford United vs Luton Town Odds

Oxford are unbeaten in their last six games and are priced at 9/5 to win this one while Luton Town are 7/5 to win their second away game of the campaign. A draw can be backed at 2/1 while over 2.5 goals is priced at 6/5 having come in during 56% of Luton games so far this term. 

BTTS can be backed at 10/11 while Morris is the favourite to open the scoring at 6/1 with seven goals to his name so far this term. 

Under 2.5 goals @ 8/13

Although Luton rank highly for over 2.5 goals this season, with only Portsmouth and Watford ahead of them for that particular statistic, Bloomfield’s first port of call will be to sort out their leaky defence. The decision to play four players who can play as centre-backs, with Bell and Hashioka as full-backs, as well as Nakamba - should provide more solidity and the clean sheet against PNE was testament to that. 

Meanwhile, Oxford have only seen over 2.5 goals in 41 per cent of their fixtures but that hasn’t come in during any of their last five - when Rowett has truly got to grips with this squad. He’s made them tough to beat and I feel this will be another tight encounter, with goals hard to come by at either end. Under 2.5 goals is my first selection. 

Oxford to win 1-0 @ 13/2 

Along similar lines, I think we are getting great value on a narrow home win, so will plump for a 1-0 correct scoreline. Oxford haven’t lost in their last six in the league, winning four of those, and Rowett has taken them up a level since his arrival. Although I rate Bloomfield as a manager and trust he can get Luton out of difficulty, he has only had a matter of days in the job and it may take some time before he gets them firing. 

I think the Hatters will concede fewer goals moving forward, but for this one I think they could just come up short against an Oxford outfit that are rapidly climbing the Championship table. If they keep up this form, relegation worries will have disappeared by spring. 

Offers

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