A
trip to spend a freezing cold Tuesday evening in February sat in
Gillingham's 'temporary' open-air away stand would be a depressing
enough prospect. But couple that with the fact that we will almost
certainly lose – possibly heavily – and it soon becomes clear
that only the most loyal/mental of Oxford fans will be making this
trip.
Our
season is now well and truly over as far as competing for promotion
is concerned, with nine points to make up in the remaining 13 games
on no evidence of any imminent turnaround in the club's form
following a dreary
goalless draw with a hopelessly out-of-form York. Gillingham, on
the other hand, have gone from strength to strength over the course
of the campaign and currently sit top of the pile, two points clear
of the similarly impressive Port Vale. If there is any hope at all
for United, it is that Gillingham's home form is not spectacular –
they've lost five of their 17 home games so far and only taken
maximum points from nine of those. It's only a small crumb of
comfort, but with Oxford winning four of our last six matches on the
road it's enough to ignite just a small spark of hope.
There
will be further reason for optimism for United as Gillingham will be
without Cody McDonald after he was recalled by Coventry City, days
after he netted their winner against Chesterfield. The bad news is
that he could be replaced by Gills' top-scorer Danny Kedwell as he
returns from a hamstring injury. As for us, there seems to be no
further injury news to report (this must be the longest we've gone
without an injury setback all season!) but we still await the return
of Michael Duberry after he recovered from his injury – though he
may struggle to oust the partnership of Wright and Raynes after two
consecutive clean sheets. Lewis Montrose is unable to play against
his parent club, so Wilder will be forced to make a change in
midfield.
Our
record against the Gills is one of the poorest imaginable, with no
wins since 1986 – ten matches. In the five meetings between the two
sides since we regained our place in the Football League, we shared
just two goals – both of those going Gillingham's way. In fact, you
have to go back more than a decade to find the last time we scored
against Gillingham, when Mark Wright oversaw a 2-1 defeat. The last
time the two sides faced each other was back in October, as we held
the leaders to a 0-0
draw. A similar result this time would be considered a huge
success.
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