Finally, at the third attempt, Oxford United's home FA Trophy second round tie against Woking looks likely to go ahead tonight. Originally scheduled for Saturday 9 January the game was postponed because of the heavy snow and rearranged for the following Tuesday. A massive effort involving club staff, players, and fans managed to clear the pitch of the residual snow, but because of a frozen patch the game was still called off and rescheduled for tonight. And, although heavy snow is forecast for Oxford tomorrow, this evening's weather is projected to be cloudy with temperatures at a balmy four degrees Celsius. Salad days.

Oxford will be looking to bounce back from Saturday's shock home defeat by Tamworth, and Chris Wilder is therefore likely to name a strong starting line-up. Ryan Clarke will probably keep his place in goal to allow him an opportunity to recover his confidence after his error gifted Tamworth their goal, although there will be a couple of enforced changes to the side that played at the weekend. Damian Batt's dismissal means that he is suspended and therefore won't be on the bench, while new left-back Anthony Tonkin is cup-tied, meaning that Kevin Sandwith is likely to return at left back. Jake Wright will probably be given another game to bed in, although his partner this evening could be Rhys Day instead of Mark Creighton. New midfielder Lee Fowler could be looking at his first game for United, while Sam Deering and Jamie Cook will both be hopeful of being involved after missing out on Saturday. Luke Foster is still sitting on the naughty step and will miss out both tonight and in tomorrow's behind-closed-doors game at Brentford.

Woking haven't played since New Year's Day, when they beat Havant & Waterlooville 2-0 in the Conference South. Their last away game was a 1-1 draw at Havant on Boxing Day. They reached the second round thanks to a 1-0 win over Conference side Forest Green Rovers, and they currently lie fifth in the Conference South, just two points behind second-placed Dover Athletic but with two games in hand. They include among their ranks former Us Jamies Hand and Slabber. If, god forbid, tonight's game is drawn the replay will be next Tuesday, when United are due to play Cambridge United at the Kas.

The winners of tonight's tie will face a trip to Chelmsford City on Saturday 30 January, when Oxford are scheduled to play Wrexham at home in a Conference fixture. United have never played at Chelmsford's Melbourne Park, a ground that the Clarets moved to just three years ago and one that features a Gateshead-style running track. Although the stadium has a capacity of around 3,000 there were just 715 in attendance for last night's FA Trophy second round 2-1 win over Crawley Town. The last time that Oxford played Chelmsford was in the FA Cup first round in December 1967, when after two 3-3 draws the Essex side beat the Us 1-0 at neutral Brentford. Before that, the sides were regular opponents in the Southern League, with United just having the upper hand. [@opponent]Woking[/@opponent][@connection]woking[/@connection]