MATCH PREVIEW: Charlton Athletic vs Oxford United - Saturday 20th December 2025: 3pm Kick-Off

Charlton Athletic vs Oxford United
Saturday 20th December 2025 - 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Elliot Bell

Introduction
When your team has lost five games on the trot its easy to wonder where the next result is going to come from, obviously said team isn't going to lose forever, but just look at the likes of Southampton in the 2024/25 season, who went a whole season with two solitary wins. Of course the Premier League is a bit different compared to the Championship, yet the same type of logic appears, losing after all can become a very bad habit that's difficult to shake... So when the Addicks finally earnt a deserved draw at St. Andrews last Saturday, it helped stopped the rot... Now we'll see if we've started to turn the corner, and potentially just at the right moment.

The Opposition
Name: Oxford United (22nd) - Manager: Gary Rowett
Ground: Kassam Stadium
Previous League Result: Oxford 1-2 Preston

Next up at the Valley will be fellow relegation strugglers: Oxford United, and if I understand the importance of this result accordingly, the losers will be instantly relegated back down to League One... Well maybe I've exaggerated that just a tad... Of course the result will be important, defeat this coming Saturday will be annoying, and will make our job slightly harder, but given there have been times in the past where we've been "relegated" in March, and out of the "Play-Offs" in January... there is the reminder that nothing is over until its over.

Oxford though will certainly be looking to avoid the dreaded second season syndrome, having been promoted to the Championship via. the Play-Offs at the end of the 2023/24 season. It was their first season in the second tier since 1998-99, and their exile from the Championship has been long, and involved plenty of suffering with three seasons in the National League. Finally though they returned to this tier, and put in a good showing, ending up a respectful 17th, and four points off the relegation zone. Not bad for a side who achieved a solitary four points across ten games this time a year ago.

Survival might be a big ask this time around though, Oxford didn't exactly strength in the Transfer Market over the summer, just the three permanent signings, whilst their top scorer from last season (Mark Harris with six goals), has yet to get off the mark this time around, hey we can relate mate!! - Oxford themselves come into this match with a solitary win in the last nine games (a recent 2-1 home win over Ipswich), but four of those matches have ended all square.

Gary Rowett after all knows how to get results at this level, and will not want to go down as a Manager who got his side relegated in December

Strap yourselves in for another tough Saturday afternoon in the Championship... There are no easy matches at this level

Charlton Team News
The comparisons from this season, to the 2024/25 season for Charlton Athletic are quite remarkable... After all November and December are historically a poor period for the Addicks, but as we saw 12-months ago, they don't define our season. Also a year ago, there were arguments that Tyreece Campbell shouldn't be playing, an argument that wasn't helped by the fact that he didn't find the scoresheet until the 21st December... That comparison was so close to being mirrored this time around (Just a week earlier this time around), with the not-a-Striker finally breaking his duck, and earning us the draw at St. Andrews

The odd question now though... Is Campbell better utilisied from the bench? - Given that two of his best performances this season have been as a substitute - Either way we should thankfully have reinforcements this coming Saturday, with two injured players (unsurprisingly not mentioned) returning from injury. If I had to hazard a guese that'll be Amari'i Bell and Charlie Kelman, given the rumour on CharltonLife last weekend, and will be welcome returns... Whether they're thrown straight back into the eleven remains to be seen, but once again... the timing couldn't be better!!

Kaminski
Ramsay - Jones - Gillesphey
Bree - Coventry - Anderson - Fullah
Carey
Campbell - Kelman

Substitutes Bench: Mannion - Bell - Apter - Costello - Docherty - Knibbs - Berry - Olaofe - Leaburn