A
season that many of us chose to write off weeks ago now appears to
have some life in it after all! Tuesday's narrow
victory over Barnet thanks to an injury time header from Michael
Raynes made it five wins from the last seven for United and 16 points
from a possible 21. The gap between us and the play-offs is now just
five points and with eight games still to play everything is still
very much up for grabs.
Chesterfield
may also harbour an outside
chance of claiming the final play-off spot. Currently 12th,
they will need to bridge a ten-point gap to get there and matches
like this have to be considered must-win for them. But the Spireites
have been inconsistent all season and that hasn't shown much sign of
changing recently, with a 1-0 defeat to Cheltenham sandwiched in
between wins over Bristol Rovers and Dagenham & Redbridge. And
manager Paul Cook seems likely to keep faith with the side which beat
Bristol Rovers 2-0 last weekend thanks to goals from Jay O'Shea and
the Ivorian Armand Gnanduillet – there's a player that Radio
Oxford's Nick Harris will hope isn't playing!
Liam
Davis could return to the side after recovering from illness which
ruled him out last weekend, coming off the bench on Tuesday. And
Jon-Paul Pittman could be available for selection again after missing
most of the season through injury. One player who will definitely be
missing is Max
Crocombe, who has joined the New Zealand under-20s side in Fiji
for the U20 World Cup qualifiers.
Several
members of the current United side count Chesterfield among their
former clubs. Andy Whing spent a brief spell on loan at Saltergate
during the 2009-10 season and Peter Leven (who obviously won't
feature this weekend) impressed at Chesterfield in his first season
in England. Perhaps most notably, Deane Smalley chose
Oxford over Chesterfield after helping them gain promotion from
League Two in 2010-11 and although he has failed to replicate that
form here, there is a good chance that he will feature in some
capacity this weekend.
The
last time the two sides met was back in November when two
controversial goals handed Chesterfield the points, but prior to
that occasion we hadn't been beaten by Chesterfield since 1996 –
mainly because the two sides hadn't met much in the intervening time.
It had been more than a decade since we last travelled to
Chesterfield when a struggling Oxford side claimed a surprise 2-1 win
over top-of-the-league Spireites in our first visit to their new
stadium in November 2010. That was followed by a 0-0 draw at the
Kassam later that year, meaning that Chesterfield haven't won in
Oxford since 1980. Let's hope that run continues this weekend.
From the Vaults
Oxford United v Chesterfield, 12th August 1995
Oxford
kicked off the 95-96 season with high hopes of promotion once again
after disappointingly falling short the previous year. The opponents
on the opening day of the season were newly-promoted Chesterfield and
Oxford appeared to be stuttering to a drab 0-0 draw until Chrissy
Allen's effort late in the game. We all love a last-minute winner,
don't we?
Also This Weekend
Of course the other big story for Oxford United this weekend is the ladies team's HUGE match against professional WSL side Everton at the Kassam Stadium on Sunday. In an effort to drum up as much support as possible the match has been designated 'Ultimate Support Ladies Day' and tickets are only £5. Be there and help support the ladies to an incredible cup win, as well as boosting the WSL 2014 bid! We'll have plenty more about this on TBFUTH over the weekend.
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