• Oxford have lost their last two matches

• Boro beat Birmingham 2-1 before the break

• Recommended bet: Goalkeeper saves - Middlesbrough Over 2.5

Oxford and Middlesbrough return from the international break with very different aspirations over the coming months.

Gary Rowett's Oxford are, just as they were last season, locked into a battle to survive and need to snap a three-game winless streak.

Boro are awaiting the arrival of Kim Hellberg to replace Rob Edwards with caretaker Adi Viveash hoping his team are still in second spot when the Swede arrives on Teesside.

Team news

Oxford are still without Matt Phillips and Brodie Spencer while full-back Jack Currie is a doubt.

Interim Boro boss Viveash is definitely without George Edmondson because of a hip problem that failed to settle down during the break.

Dael Fry (calf) is a doubt while Viveash will hope half a dozen of his stars come back from international duty unscathed.

The stats

Oxford are the best behaved team in the Championship having picked up just 17 yellow cards in their 15 league fixtures.

Middlesbrough's only away win in six was a 1-0 success at bottom club Sheffield Wednesday.

Gary Rowett's Oxford concede an average 6.4 corners per game played at the Kassam Stadium in the league, the most shipped at home by any side in the division.

Oxford have scored only four second-half goals, the lowest tally of any Championship side.

Prediction

Viveash got his caretaker stint at the Riverside off to a winning start by masterminding Middlesbrough to a 2-1 win over Birmingham.

The odds suggest he can make it two out of two at Oxford and certainly form figures and the league table make the away win hard to talk down.

But Oxford have clocked up some decent results in front of their own fans, including a 1-0 win over Derby, though arguably that sole success was trumped by draws against Coventry, Leicester and Millwall.

Rowett has implored his team to re-embrace the underdog role which served them so well fighting to stay afloat last term, and that sounds like we can expect a determined effort from the hosts.

Boro, for their part, were without a win in three before Viveash oversaw the 2-1 win over Birmingham.

That has buoyed the group and Boro should still do much of the attacking, though interestingly Oxford actually average more shots per game (13.3) than the Teessiders (12.3).

Last time out Oxford lost 3-1 at West Brom but still forced Baggies' keeper Josh Griffiths into making three saves.

It looks to be well worth betting that Boro No.1 Sol Brynn will make over 2.5 at the Kassam.

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