Oxford United supporters are eagerly awaiting tonight's match at Cambridge United, following the cancellation of Saturday's game at Chester City after the Seals were voted out of the Conference by the member clubs. There is an appeal process open to Chester, which is why records have yet to be formally updated, but even if Chester do appeal (which remains unlikely following their failure to appear at Friday's vote) the result is unlikely to be altered, as they can only appeal against the recommendation of the Conference board, not the result of the vote itself (pointless, really). In a nutshell, this means that this evening's match is Oxford's first since beating AFC Wimbledon 2-0 at Grenoble Road last Tuesday.

There was some good news on the injury front for Chris Wilder, as skipper Adam Murray returned to full training this week. Tonight's game is probably too early for him to be included in the starting line-up, but he may make the bench. Ryan Clarke has now had ample time to recover from the dead leg he received in the first half of the Wimbledon game, and so he is likely to resume between the sticks after Billy Turley played for the second half on Tuesday. Jack Midson will also have recovered from a similar injury that kept him sidelined last week, meaning that the only absentee from injury is Alfie Potter. This all leaves Wilder with an embarrassment of riches, and far be it from us to try and second-guess his chosen line-up. We can be fairly certain that leading scorer James Constable will start after his brace against the Dons, but really it's anyone's guess who will take the field for the Us tonight.

Cambridge's home game against Tamworth on Saturday was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch, but reports suggest that this was due to an over-fussy referee (being charitable) and with a couple of days of sunshine there should be no problem tonight. Cambridge will be without key players Antonio Murray (banned) and Robbie Willmott (injured), but Paul Carden, who has frequently been a thorn in Oxford's side, returns after injury. The wrong Us also feature striker Chris Holroyd, who is currently joint-fifth in the Conference leading scorer table (Beano is joint first, with Richard Brodie). The two Us tend to produce interesting encounters, and with Oxford gunning for automatic promotion and Cambridge fighting for survival at the opposite end of the table, tonight's match promises to live up to the billing. [@opponent]cambridge united[/@opponent][@connection]cambridge united[/@connection]