Today's Christmas Eve, which means that tomorrow's Christmas Day, which means that the next day is Footy Day, and United welcome Crawley Town to Minchery Farm. The Us have failed to score in their last five matches, and will be hoping that the Crawley defence will be retaining the Christmas spirit to present United's scrooge-like strikers with a present or two, gift wrapping optional.[@opponent]Crawley Town[/@opponent][@connection]Crawley Town[/@connection] Oxford haven't lost in any of their last five Boxing Day games, and last season they drew a record Conference attendance of 11,065 for the disappointing 0-0 draw with Woking.

Darren Patterson could find himself with another injury worry going into the game, as Danny Rose limped off during the team's 1-0 Setanta Shield defeat on Saturday. If Rose doesn't recover in time, there are options for Patterson, as both Phil Trainer and Eddie Hutchinson could slot into the midfield, and for the left wing position there remains the option of Alex Jeannin covering, with Ben Weedon at full back. James Clarke could well return at right back, so Matt Day could even swap to left back, although he's shown before that he's uncomfortable in that position. Billy Turley may be fit to return in goal, but otherwise Sam Warrell is standing by to make his home debut. The striker permutations still haven't provided any hint of goalscoring possibility, and it can't be long before Alex Fisher is given his first start, whether that will be post-pud remains to be seen.

Crawley won their last away game, 2-1 at Eastbourne in the Setanta Shield, with former-U Jamie Cook scoring the winning goal. Prior to that, Crawley's last away win was at Weymouth on 12 October, and their only other victory on the road was at Conference leaders Aldershot, way back at the end of August. Crawley are managed by Steve Evans, so we know that we can expect a physical game with lots of direct football, but thankfully Oxford's defence is pretty solid. Crawley aren't exactly porous at the back, so we expect a tight game. We've learnt the hard way that our predictions are usually wrong when we're in a positive mood, so it's just as well that we're not, particularly. We'll go for a 0-0 draw, the result in four out of United's last five home games.