Oxford begin their league campaign
this weekend with a trip to the Memorial Ground to face Bristol Rovers. All
eyes will be on James Constable after the Pirates’ continued
interest in the striker, but Wilder is ‘100 per
cent’ certain that he will still be an Oxford player come kick off. A good
performance from him will certainly raise the asking price, but he was off the
pace in Tuesday’s cup victory over Bournemouth
and it will be concerning if his poor form so far in 2012 carries over into the
new season.
It’s a tough start to the season
against a side who are among the favourites for promotion. Manager Mark McGhee
has been backed to assemble his own side, with a host of departures early in
the summer and a steady flow of incoming players. After selling Mustapha Carayol to
Middlesbrough for an undisclosed fee a couple of weeks ago, they should have
more money to spend as well. As such, on the opening day of the season Rovers
are something of an unknown quantity with all the inevitable questions over
whether the team can ‘gel’ and all the expectation of a club that has signalled
its intent in the transfer market. A 3-1 defeat in the
League Cup to Championship side Ipswich Town also tells us little about what to
expect from our opponents, making this match a difficult one to call.
In typical style, we start the season
with a depleted squad. Michael Duberry, Liam Davis, Peter Leven, Andy Whing and
Harry Worley are all absent through injury and many of those will be long-term
layoffs. As a result, it seems unlikely that there will be many changes to the
side which played 120 minutes against Bournemouth during the week, with the
only likely addition being Alex Evans whose international clearance has now
come through.
We’ve fared pretty well against Bristol
Rovers in recent seasons. The last meeting between the two sides was a drab
affair, a goalless draw on a boggy pitch in February. However, the two meetings
previous to that resulted in comfortable wins for United. When Rovers visited
the Kassam back in October 2011, Oxford produced a masterful performance which left
us purring to ease to a 3-0 victory. And let’s not forget when League One
Bristol Rovers came to the Kassam for Oxford’s first home game back in the
Football League in August 2010, when the yellows dished out a 6-1 thrashing to
their higher-league opponents in the League Cup.
From the Vaults
Oxford United v Bristol Rovers, 26th September 1995
Oxford had made a decent but not
spectacular start to the 1995-96 season, sitting just outside the playoff
places in Division Two (League One), but having drawn matches we needed to win
in order to challenge at the top of the table. We were unbeaten at home, with
three wins and a draw to our name when Bristol Rovers – one place behind us on
goal difference – turned up at the Manor…
You
can find this and many other old Oxford matches on our Video
Vault page.
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