Oxford United welcome Ebbsfleet United to the United Stadium tomorrow in a game that could prove to be a lot harder than at first thought. Ebbsfleet's last two games saw them beat play-off contenders Mansfield Town and Stevenage Borough; results that both helped Oxford enormously, but the Fleet are unlikely to be in the mood to do United further favours tomorrow.

Oxford remain unbeaten at home this season, and have conceded just three goals in league games. Chris Wilder will have Luke Foster returned from suspension after he missed the last-gasp 2-1 win at Crawley Town on Tuesday. James Constable will be looking to resume his place in the starting line-up after coming on at half-time to score the injury-time winner. Alfie Potter will also be hoping that his second-half performance will have earned him a start, while we still await news on whether Damian Batt will be fit enough to join the squad. On the debit side, the sad news is that Steven Kinniburgh's injury has led to his return to Glasgow Rangers as he won't recover before his loan spell was due to end. Hopefully United will be able to regain his services in January, but for now Kevin Sandwith will be looking to grasp the opportunity to make the left-back berth his own again. Loan strikers Onome Sodje and Franny Green will be hoping to make their home debuts after they were ineligible to play in the FA Cup against Barrow last weekend.

While Ebbsfleet's last two home games have been impressive victories, their away record remains, frankly, pretty pathetic. They have lost their last seven away games without even finding the net, including a 3-0 humiliation at Bromley in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round. However, remember that this is Oxford, who have a habit of allowing teams to end their poor runs at the Kas (Forest Green Rovers were without a point until their visit to Grenoble Road this season, while last season Lewes had failed to score in seven Conference games before their visit to the Dreaming Spires. Hopefully Stefan Bailey will rediscover the form he showed while at Oxford on loan from QPR.

Ebbsfleet were, of course, United's first home opponents, and first win, under Wilder's reign. Since then Oxford's inspirational manager has taken charge of 45 Conference games, in which the club has amassed 104 points. If this form can be maintained then there is no one in this league that will be able to catch the Us. We're obviously not counting the chickens until a few more eggs have hatched, but it would take the combination of a very poor (and currently uncharacteristic) run by Oxford, combined with a superhuman effort from one of the chasing pack, for them chickens not to come home to roost. [@opponent]ebbsfleet United[/@opponent] [@connection]ebbsfleet united[/@connection]