Tomorrow sees the world restored to order: the planets are back on their axes; Pandoras toys are back in her box; Schrodinger's cat is, theoretically, back in his; Escher's stairs lead to the top of the tower; and United are back in the Football League. The visit to Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium is about as gentle an introduction to League football as we could have expected, it being little over a year since the sides last met, in Conference action. On that occasion, Oxford denied Burton automatic promotion (for a week, anyway) by virtue of Adam Chapman's free-kick giving the Us the three points.

Chris Wilder's first side in League Two is anyone's guess, with a fully fit squad to choose from with the exception of Welsh centre-back Rhys Day, who is out until September. Despite the clubs' last meeting being just 16 months ago, just three of the Oxford side that played in that match remain in United's squad. James Constable is now club captain and is a certain starter; Damian Batt is likely to start at right-back, having performed well during the pre-season while his main competitor Ben Purkiss has been struggling with an injury; Simon Clist has also missed almost all pre-season following an operation at the start of the summer, coming back for just the second half at Banbury United on Monday. We can assume that last season's Player of the Year, Ryan Clarke, will start in goal, while Anthony Tonkin is likely to be left-back and from the pre-season friendlies we can reasonably deduce that the midfield will comprise Asa Hall, Simon Heslop, and Dannie Bulman, with Matt Green one of Beano's partners up front. That leaves the two centre-back positions and one forward place up for grabs. Jake Wright missed a chunk of pre-season with injury, but Wilder claims that he is now fit; whether or not he starts possibly depends on whether or not Tufty (that's Wilder's nickname apparently, although it feels a tad disrespectful in our opinion) thinks that a pairing of Mark Creighton and Harry Worley might struggle for pace. Up front it would appear to be a straight choice between Jack Midson and Alfie Potter; Midson has had a relatively poor pre-season, exemplified by his showing at Oxford City, but Potter has tended to perform better when coming on as an impact substitute, so we reckon that's how it'll be tomorrow. Now watch as Wilder picks a totally different line-up. Don't forget that in this brave new world the sides can name up to seven subs., of which three can play, so we're not going to bother trying to work out those permutations.

Oxford have a 100 per cent record at Burton, although it would be a confident person who predicts that run to continue. It may well do; the first game of the season is notoriously difficult to call. Those who believe in omens might wish to consider that on the previous two occasions that Oxford have played a first game in the fourth division have both been lost, the Yellows going down 3-2 at Barrow in their first match as a Football League club on 18 August 1962 and then losing 2-1 at home to Rochdale on 11 August 2001 in their first League game at the Kas. A counter omen (which possibly just goes to show that these things are all bullshit) is that on the only two previous occasions that Craig Pawson has refereed an Oxford game the opposition has failed to score; he was in charge for United's 1-0 win at Farsley Celtic on 14 October 2007, and then for a home goalless draw with Grays Athletic on 26 January 2008. Suck on that. [@opponent]burton albion[/@opponent] [@connection]burton albion[/@connection]

There is only one former Oxford player in the Burton squad, striker Richard Walker coming to the Kas initially on loan from Blackpool in March 2004. He left at the end of that season having played a grand total of four games without scoring. Last season's United skipper Adam Murray was once a Burton player, but he has opted to remain as an insignificant non-League player and so doesn't count.